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NYP: GOP ACHILLES HEEL--HOW REPUBLICANS LOST WEST
New York Post ^ | March 28, 2008 | Ryan Sager

Posted on 03/28/2008 8:12:56 AM PDT by OESY

...The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that the share of voters who call themselves Republicans has dropped six points nationwide since 2004. That doesn't matter much in the Northeast (where the GOP's already locked out) or Down South (where the GOP remains dominant). But in the interior West, it's a big, big deal.

In 2000, none of these eight states had a Democratic governor. Now five do, including Colorado. A 2006 post-election Salt Lake City Tribune analysis showed that, where the GOP had beaten the Democrats by 20 points in the region's vote for the House in 2000, that advantage had fallen to one point in 2006. A few states, including Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, had seen a majority of House votes cast for the Democrats.

In fact, Colorado now looks bluer than a half-drowned Smurf. It's got a Democratic governor, House, Senate and high court. The GOP lost both houses of the Legislature in 2004 after spending a session on such issues as gay marriage, the Pledge of Allegiance and the liberal biases of college professors - while the state faced a massive fiscal crisis.

At the federal level, the state's got a recently minted Democratic senator (Ken Salazar, replacing a Republican in 2004) and two recently acquired House seats (one picked up in 2004, one in '06). Turning Blue on the presidential ballot is all that's left in this metamorphosis.

As Caldara put it: "Colorado is, in fact, the test tube of how to export liberal expansion to the Western states." A moderately conservative state has been turned Blue....

Of course, Democrats have worked hard to capitalize on the Republicans' carelessness. Liberal groups... have turned discontent into votes. And now they have a model to use in the rest of the region....

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservatism; pew; republicans; west
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1 posted on 03/28/2008 8:12:58 AM PDT by OESY
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To: TommyDale
Unfortunately, a few morons persist in thinking that by repelling potential GOP converts, losing elections and with it the power to appoint and set agendas, and forfeiting the power of the incumbency are the ways to strengthen conservatism. They will help bring about all the things they say they are against--in Fifth Column fashion, thus damaging the country irreparably--but by then, many will be gone so they won't be held responsible.

.

2 posted on 03/28/2008 8:15:12 AM PDT by OESY
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To: OESY

Ummm Colorado has alot of wild eyed liberals.

The loss of common sense is not the fault of the GOP.

LOL LOL


3 posted on 03/28/2008 8:15:22 AM PDT by JaneNC (I)
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To: OESY

I don’t call myself a republican. I am a conservative who up to now voted republican.


4 posted on 03/28/2008 8:16:04 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: OESY

Wouldn’t have anything to do with socialists fleeing California, would it?


5 posted on 03/28/2008 8:18:09 AM PDT by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: OESY

I am not a Republican. I am a conservative, who up to this year has voted Republican.


6 posted on 03/28/2008 8:20:18 AM PDT by TommyDale (I) (Never forget the Republicans who voted for illegal immigrant amnesty in 2007!)
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To: OESY

There are issues you use to roll out the base and then there are the issues of the day that you have to articulate positions and solutions for. Whining about gay people doesn’t solve tax or employment issues.


7 posted on 03/28/2008 8:20:20 AM PDT by misterrob (Obama-Does America Need Another Jimmy Carter?)
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To: OESY

America’s fall is tied directly to its abandoning the principles that we were founded on, namely Judeo-Christian. We have a generation of self-absorbed, impulse buyers who cannot see past what sitcom they are watching to pay attention to what is happening. They are so concerned with the last text they received and who they be hooking up with later they have basically become entitlement democrats by proxy.

Trying to correct a wrong in a party that has abandoned its roots is small beans in the face of this pandemic.


8 posted on 03/28/2008 8:20:51 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: OESY

It is really easy,

we have far left social liberals in the west who have infesting the GOP leadership.

Unfortunatly most of the ones we have managed to purge out over the recent years have now glomed onto el leftst mccainiac in hopes of stopping all the possitive inroads we have made.
(protecting marriage, second amendment, stopping illegal amnesty)


9 posted on 03/28/2008 8:21:06 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Resolute Conservative
I don’t call myself a republican. I am a conservative who up to now voted republican.

I am continually considered a Republican by friends and family, and I have to constantly remind them that I do not belong to any political party -- I am a conservative, and I vote for conservative candidates.

Unfortunately, there are no conservative candidates running for president.
10 posted on 03/28/2008 8:21:13 AM PDT by Thrusher (Remember the Mog.)
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To: JaneNC
What a Pack of lies .
The Pew Institute is run by Democrat party activists !
Go look at the leftists on there website.
CO was invaded by the eco crazies from Calif and all over the country. It had NOTHING to do with repub policies.
I used to do consulting there and locals were screaming about the invasion.
11 posted on 03/28/2008 8:23:11 AM PDT by ncalburt
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To: OESY

From what little I’ve seen, the explanation is rich liberals looking to move to a chic place to live. The Democrats have become the party of welfare recipients and rich yuppies, and Colorado is one of the fashionable places to build your new dream home. Or to move out of California and escape the mess you have made.

It’s much like people fleeing to New Hampshire from Taxachusetts.

Certainly something did happen after 2004 as well. Bush came back into office on a tidal wave of conservative support, and he immediately started blowing it. There was great discouragement in 2006, and even greater discouragement now, with that jackass McCain as the party’s choice.

Also, Mel Martinez ran as a “conservative,” as did many of the other new Dem senators elected that year, and regretably the voters believed his lies.


12 posted on 03/28/2008 8:24:02 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: OESY
It's got a Democratic governor, House, Senate and high court.

The High Court is Democrat? That's so wrong...

13 posted on 03/28/2008 8:27:36 AM PDT by BoneHead
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To: Cicero

Rich liberals see government pork profits as their road to wealth.

IOW the ultimate OPM.


14 posted on 03/28/2008 8:27:40 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: longtermmemmory

exactly


15 posted on 03/28/2008 8:29:53 AM PDT by ncalburt
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To: OESY

It’s simple: the GOP establishment has gotten on small-government fiscal conservatives’ last nerve.


16 posted on 03/28/2008 8:30:09 AM PDT by steve-b (Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. --RAH)
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To: Cicero

another nice spot ruined by rich leftists is Whitefish MT.


17 posted on 03/28/2008 8:31:11 AM PDT by ncalburt
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To: OESY

all true!


18 posted on 03/28/2008 8:32:25 AM PDT by dennisw (Never bet on a false prophet! <<<||>>> Never bet on Islam!)
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To: OESY

I am no longer a Republican. I was one when they offered Conservative candidates, but no longer.


19 posted on 03/28/2008 8:33:52 AM PDT by Ingtar (Haley Barbour 2012, Because he has experience in Disaster Recovery. - ejonesie22)
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To: OESY

Colorado’s moved bluer due to all the Cali and Pac NW folks moving in, not because of an inherent shift of the domestic natives.


20 posted on 03/28/2008 8:34:04 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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