Month: June 2012

Voters Abandoning California Republican Party – Independents Now Trail GOP Registrations By Just 8.9 Points

Jon Ponder

New voter registration tallies from the California Secretary of State’s office show that Republican Party is continuing to shed voters. Analysts say that teavangelical hardline opposition on social issues and tax policy in Washington and nationwide is driving voters out of the GOP column in the nation’s largest state.

“In California, the Republican Party has done tremendous damage to its brand with its positions on immigration and gay marriage. Add to that the no-tax pledge.”
— Matt David, California Republican strategist

In 1996, 37 percent of California registered voters were Republicans. In 2007, the number had dropped to 30.9 percent, or 5.3 million voters. The latest figures show a decline this year — despite a GOP pre-primary registration drive by Ron Paul supporters — to 30.2 percent, or 5,180,417 registered Republicans.

In 1972, just 5 percent of Californians were registered independents. By 1996, the number of independents had doubled to 10.7 percent. In 2007, it rose to 18.8 percent, or 2.9 million voters. Last year, fully one-fifth of California voters — 20.4 percent, or 3.5 million voters — had registered as independents. This year the percentage rose again to 21.3 percent, or 3.7 million.

The gap between registered Republicans and independents is already in single digits — 8.9 percent points now — and the trendline suggests it is narrowing.

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Rich Americans Renouncing Citizenship at Record Rate

Buck Banks

8,000/week

Average rate at which U.S. immigration officials predict wealthy Americans will renounce their citizenship in 2012, the New York Post reports, largely to avoid any stiff tax bills resulting from the proposed 55 percent hike on the rich — as well as the likely expiration of the Bush era tax cuts Dec. 31. That’s about 154 a week, versus 3,805 in 2011, or about 73 per week.

Everything Is Political, So Get Over It Already

Buck Banks

Let’s posit that the point of politics is to get more votes than the other side — so everything a politician does is by definition political. Shocking. But there is, frequently, also an element of principle, a dash of ideology, and maybe even a hint of idealism. To analyze every act in terms of motive, and to reduce every motive to its basest level, is just dumb. … You can drive yourself crazy trying to peer into a person’s soul —or you can do the sensible thing: ask not what inner motives drive a politician’s policy choices but instead whether those choices are good for the country.

— Paul Begala, writing in the Daily Beast.

Swing State Sweepstakes: Obama Off to a Big Start in Florida

Trish
YR
Image from the 2012 Republican Convention web site. Not sure who this is, but apparently the typical young Republican is a white girl who wears voluminous country club scarves and dirndl skirts with no makeup and whose left hand floats unattached nearby

Since Tampa is the site of the Republican National Convention in August, one would think Pres. Obama would get an icy reception there. He recently found the opposite.

He drew an adoring and energetic crowd of nearly 3,000 people to Hillsborough Community College, receiving cheers of support after almost every sentence he uttered. Some people arrived at the HCC campus as early as 7:30 in the morning, camped out with folding chairs and deli sandwiches.

Obama used his first Florida 2012 campaign rally to focus on Romney’s self-portrayal as a job creator. Of course, Romney has created many, many jobs. The problem is that they are mainly in foreign countries.

In Tampa, he seized on a Washington Post article that the venture capital firm Romney used to lead, Bain Capital, invested in companies that specialized in sending jobs to low-wage countries. The president noted that he is calling for an end to tax breaks for shipping jobs and plants overseas.

“Not only does Gov. Romney disagree with this plan, today it was reported in the Washington Post that the companies his firm owned were ‘pioneers’ in the outsourcing of American jobs to places like China and India. Pioneers,” Obama said. “Tampa, we don’t need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president who will fight for American jobs and American manufacturing.”