Everything from providing health care to millions, reining in Wall Street (soon) and jump-starting the economy at the beginning of Obama's term is supposed to make Democrats go down in flames this year at the ballot box. Despite all that talk (coming mostly from the right) the situation on the ground, at least here in New York clearly paints a different picture. As much as the Republican party likes to boast about their intransigence to participating in important national debates and cautiously coax their hypocritical Tea Party brethren, the reality is that the swing voters see nothing of a value in the G.O.P. Furthermore, the apparatus that is crucial to winning elections is broken, at least in the Empire State.
From The NY Times:
With the Republican State Convention approaching, the party is plagued by infighting, short of money and struggling to assemble a competitive slate of statewide candidates for the fall, leaving many party leaders worried that they are poorly positioned to exploit what might be the most favorable political climate for New York Republicans in years.
The national party is so concerned that Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, traveled to Manhattan recently for an emergency meeting with Mr. Cox.
The party’s problems begin at the top of the ticket.
The Republican candidate for governor with the deepest pockets, Carl P. Paladino, a Buffalo real estate developer, was widely denounced by fellow Republicans and others last month after a left-leaning Web site reported that he had forwarded to friends many racist and pornographic e-mail messages.
The candidate with the broadest support among local party leaders, former Representative Rick Lazio, has been running since September yet remains invisible to most voters.
And that is just a small snippet of the problems our local Republican party faces. Lack of funds, a Democratic heavyweight at the top of the ticket named Cuomo, no credible candidate for Attorney General...and all of that pales in comparison to the specter of New York-style redistricting for the next cycle, even if the Democratic Assembly and State Senate are humble enough to go the non-partisan route.
For the last few decades Republicans worked hard to ensure they had as many seats in the State Senate as possible (and yet they lost their majority anyway in 2008). Now G.O.P.-favored gerrymandering is dead and their chances of winning anything is far diminished.
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