MyDD :: Republican Leaders Run Away From Their Party

Republican Leaders Run Away From Their Party

by Jonathan Singer, Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 02:41:17 AM EST

How bad is the political environment for House Republicans? So bad, apparently, that even the party's leadership won't even admit that they are Republicans in their campaign ads this year, as The Hill's Jonathan E. Kaplan reports.

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who is in charge of keeping Congress in GOP hands this fall, surprised the political establishment yesterday by airing an early television advertisement that made no mention of his party affiliation.

[...]

In addition, Reynolds, a 30-year veteran of upstate New York politics and a former GOP minority leader in the state Assembly, is one of several House GOP leaders who do not mention their party affiliation on their campaign websites. In ads posted on their sites, Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) also do not state their Republican credentials.

There are a number of people who are skeptical that the Democrats' impressive generic congressional ballot lead will hold in individual races. To be frank, I am not entirely convinced that a double-digit Democratic lead on these questions will actually yield a Democratic blowout this fall. But the trickle of news in recent days -- that the White House is preparing for a Democratic takeover of one or both chambers of Congress; that House Republicans have added Idaho's first congressional district, which Bush carried with 69 percent of the vote in 2004, to their "Retain Our Majority" program; and now that Reynolds, Pryce and Blunt are running away from their party labels -- indicates to me that Republicans are putting quite a bit of stock into these numbers, and that perhaps so, too, should we.

Tags: Republicans, House 2006 (all tags)

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Re: Republican Leaders Run Away From Their Party (none / 0)

I think it is beyond weird that here in Colorado there are already signs out for the Republican candidates for state office...with nary a hint of their party affiliation. And you would think Two Way Beauprez would be proud to be a Republican?

by Carol on Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 10:54:51 AM EST

Watch the Kennedy (R-MN Sen) tv ads (none / 0)

A great example at http://www.markkennedy06.com/

The candidate goes out of his way to say he'd be independent from "party" and "president" without naming either.

I don't think the word "Republican" is ever mentioned.

by DFLer on Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 01:48:59 PM EST

Re: Republican Leaders Run Away From Their Party (none / 0)

Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN), running for the open Senate seat against democrat Amy Klobuchar, is another example. As noted by the Minnesota political blog MN Plubius, http://www.mnpublius.com/2006/07/reality _check_kennedy_the_part.php , Kennedy just put out his first tv ad, which not only fails to mention that he's a Republican, but also neglects to note that he's a three-term congressman.

Plubius also links to a really good segment on WCCO-TV called "Reality check," where long-time news reporter Pat Kessler takes Kennedy to task for, for example, stressing in his ad that "he doesn't always do what the party says to" when, in fact, he voted with the President 87 percent of the time in 2005, and 97(!!) percent of the time in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Polls show Amy ahead, but there's really no telling what the Republicans in Minnesota are capable of (see, e.g., sending a letter to Minnesota Jews two days before the 1990 election claiming that Paul Wellstone was a bad Jew --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wellst one ; calling a press conference two days before the 1996 election to accuse Wellstone of having burned an American flag).

I don't live in Minnesota anymore, but I like to follow what's going on there, and I've thrown a few pennies Amy's way. I would encourage y'all to do the same:

http://www.amyklobuchar.com/
oh, and check out her two tv ads: I think they are very well done.

by addieloggins on Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 02:43:23 PM EST

Re: Republican Leaders Run Away From Their Party (none / 0)

And the dem ad should read "Why is Tom Reynolds ashamed to mention that he's a republican - even though he leads the Republican campign committee in Washington? We think we know. People are fed up with six years of rubber stamp republicans, and Tom doesn't have the guts to stand up for his beliefs."

by thelonius on Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 03:48:45 PM EST

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