Month: April 2011

Voter Remorse, Cont’d: Poll Finds 28 Point Shift Away from GOP among Swing Voters Since November

Jon Ponder

Just a week after the respected pollster Charlie Cook wrote a column spotlighting rising concern among establishment Republicans about their party’s collapsing support among swing voters, a new survey from Public Policy Polling finds a 28-point shift away from the GOP since November among independents :

62 percent of voters say Republicans have either made things worse or failed to improve Congress.

The key to this strong movement back toward the Democrats right now is the same as the key to the strong movement away from the Democrats last year — fickle independents quickly growing unhappy with the party in power. Exit polls showed independents supporting the GOP by a 19 point margin last year at 56-37. Now only 30 percent of those voters think that the Republican controlled House is moving things in the right direction, compared to 44 percent who think things were better with the Democrats. Given those numbers it’s not much of a surprise that independents now say they’d vote Democratic for the House by a 42-33 margin if these was an election today, representing a 28 point reversal in a span of just five months.

The poll found no good news for the GOP:
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Crist Settles with Byrne Over Song Use in Campaign Ad

Buck Banks

It turns out I am one of the few artists who has the bucks and [guts] to challenge such usage. I’m feeling very manly after my trip to Tampa! Other artists may actually have the anger but not want to take the time and risk the legal bills. I am lucky that I can do that. Anyway, my hope is that by standing up to this practice maybe it can be made to be a less common option, or better yet an option that is never taken in the future.

— Talking Heads singer David Byrne, on a lawsuit he brought against former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist after Crist’s senate campaign used one of the group’s songs — “Road to Nowhere” — without permission in a campaign ad last year, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Terms of the settlement were not released, but it included a very unusual recorded apology by Crist.