[MovementConservative]

A sobering assessment of the GOP in Oregon.

[The_Republican]

Quote:

“It’s a wake-up call,” says former state labor commissioner Jack Roberts. “We’ve been spending so much of our time arguing about who is more Republican, and the voters are electing people who aren’t Republican at all.”

a.k.a - Ann Coulter Syndrome.

[stevio]

Excited about McCain? Sounds to me like they're still liqueured up.
Very sad, a conservative without a country.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

Just try being the GOP in either Massachusetts or Rhode Island for the next few decades and then get back to me.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Well, if a party’s message doesn’t appeal to the electorate, they have to find one that does. California’s GOP has the exact same problem: social conservatives and RINOs in both states are slugging it out over who are the real Republicans (as if the West were Alabama or New York), and the libertarian themes that could gain large support here are ignored.

[darkangel82]

Mark Hatfield, Tom McCall, Bob Packwood, Norma Paulus and Dave Frohnmayer.

RINOs.

[PeterPrinciple]

Reasons for the recent Republican tailspin abound. Among them: deep emotions among voters about the Iraq war; a failure to nominate moderates; confusion over who calls the shots within the party.

---

The reason they lost is a failure to nominate moderates? If you take the conservatives out of the republican party (which is happening) what do you have?

[Leo Farnsworth]

Perhaps more Republicans could be voted into office if ALL VOTING was NOT done by MAIL IN BALLOT.

Food for thought.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Sorry, but this is biased crap. Those “mavericks” they’re talking about are out-and-out liberal RINOs. Newsflash: Every state GOP that goes down the liberal path dies. It’s just that simple. Massachusetts, New Jersey, just for two examples.

I did not see it mentioned that the Republican candidates that did best (at least with respect to Governor) were Conservatives (Mannix, who only just barely lost, did far better than the RINOs that were put up on several other occasions). The most smashing GOP Gubernatorial victory since after 1950 was Conservative Vic Atiyeh’s reelection in 1982 (when he beat the current Governor by a 2-to-1 margin). But they won’t mention that, because that will contradict the author’s position that liberals must be nominated by the GOP in order to win. Sorry, but screw that.

[Cicero]

Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood were two of the worst Republicans in Washington.

You don’t beat the Democrats by saying “Me, too.” The Dems can always do it more and do it better. Ask the Conservative Party in England whether there’s no way but up when you’re down. No, you can always go down even further.

California is now headed that way, too, after the Arnold disaster.

[goldstategop]

The Left Coast is a Dem lock. I just don't see the GOP regain ground in the Pacific Coast states any time soon.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Valpal1]

Vote by mail has given the Dems cart blanche cheating ability. Republicans will keep losing, nothing will change.

[shrinkermd]

"...That changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the rise of conservatives in GOP primaries. Typically, the most conservative Republican would win the primary only to fall in the general election. Even though voter registration between the two parties is relatively close -- 764,255 Democrats and 687,898 Republicans, according to the latest report -- Oregon independents have leaned Democratic..."