There’s this belief out there in Conservative-Land that the 2010 elections will mark the return of popularity to Republican politics. Â Not. So. Fast.
According to the latest Field Poll, voters have yet to embrace the Party of No.
Here’s an excerpt from the story in today’s Los Angeles Times.
“All told, even as Democrats find themselves on the defensive nationally, California inhabits a different political planet. There is no hint of a backlash against incumbents of the sort that Republicans nationally have hoped will help them gain seats in Congress and in statehouses. That is key in California, given the experience of the Democratic candidates and the neophyte nature of the biggest-named Republicans.
Just as troubling to Republicans, the poll served to remind them of the continued Democratic hold on younger voters. Unless arrested and reversed, it could eventually make the party’s current challenging times look rosy in the rear-view mirror.
True, blizzards of attack ads have yet to fall. True, the only poll that counts — as losing candidates often proclaim — is the one on election day. And true, polls can be on soft ground as they measure match-ups featuring many candidates — in this case mostly the Republicans — about whom voters know little.Â
“I don’t necessarily think the Republicans don’t stand a chance,” as Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo put it.
Right now, however, there is one group in which they really don’t, and that is among younger voters. The conundrum for the state Republican Party and its candidates: how to get ethnically diverse voters who demand healthcare reform and environmental protection to side with a party associated with neither, and whose icon remains a former president elected before they were born.”
And what the story doesn’t track is that while Republicans claim to be the party of small government, limited spending and low taxes, no Republican governor or President in recent memory has ever walked the walk while talking the talk.