GOP County Chair Implying Republican Senators Should Not Seek Reelection?
By Mike Connery on 06/29/2010 @ 04:43 PM
Yesterday, Westchester County Republican Party chair Doug Colety absurdly requested that Democratic Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer not run for re-election this fall. His reasoning? A recent Quinnipiac University poll that found around 80 percent of voters are “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the state.
Maybe Colety should be more familiar with recent polling before he make requests that reek of desperation. If he was, he would know that the latest polling Siena polling showed an anti-incumbent mood in New York – one that was directed primarily at upstate Republicans and the Party of No.
According to the poll's findings, 66% of New Yorkers reject a GOP-controlled Senate, preferring to see the Democrats make gains in the chamber (34%) or see the Senate remain closely divided (32%) among the parties. Anti-incumbent sentiment was directed primarily at upstate Republicans, where 58% of voters preferred "someone else" to their current representative, vs. 51% in the suburbs and just 40% in New York City.
On the generic ballot, 44% preferred a Democratic Senator to just 26% Republican. Stan Greenberg of Siena put the numbers into perspective: “Democrats are inclined to re-elect their incumbent state senator by a 47-40 percent margin, while Republican voters prefer ‘someone else’ by an overwhelming 60-23 percent margin,” Greenberg said. “Upstate, where 20 of 25 senators are Republican, only 28 percent want to re-elect their senator and 58 percent prefer ‘someone else.’
This not the first poll to suggest frustration with the GOP. This is the second poll from Siena (and third poll overall) to show that New Yorkers are overwhelmingly ready to kick Republican incumbents out of office.
By Colety’s ‘logic,’ every Republican Senator should fail to run for reelection this year- after all, polls show that people are upset and that they are more dissatisfied with Republicans.
It’s not too often we find ourselves agreeing with a GOP county chair- but if he wants to wipe the November ballots of all Republican incumbents, we wouldn’t put up much of a fight.
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