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Monday, September 06, 2010

Democratic Donors Shifting Right


The Houston Chronicle reports:

Since Obama's election, the political action committees and employees of 126 businesses that had donated money to Senate Democrats in the 2008 campaign have switched all or most of their 2010 contributions to the Republicans, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission reports by the Houston Chronicle. That list is led by prominent Wall Street firms but includes energy companies, manufacturers, lobbying operations and other groups with a monetary stake in Capitol Hill deliberations.

Not only have those 126 organizations decided to hedge their bets, they're placing plenty of distance between themselves and the Democrats who control Capitol Hill. Their donations to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have dropped 25 percent this year, to $1.67 million.

"We're seeing a shift from Democrats to Republicans because Wall Street and corporations see the political environment more conducive to the election of Republicans," says Anthony Corrado Jr., a campaign finance scholar at Colby College in Maine. "These donors are looking at the prospect of Republican majority and hedging their bets."


The whole report is quite detailed but the bottom line is that Democratic donors are shifting to the right perhaps understanding that GOP control of the Senate is not out of the realm of possibility anymore.

According to a new CNN poll just out, CNN joins Gallup and Rasmussen in finding that the GOP advantage for the November midterms is growing.

"The survey indicates that independents and voters who dislike both parties are starting to break toward the GOP," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "In a year when anger at incumbents is a dominant political force, the key to the election lies among those who aren't rooting for either side."

According to the poll, the two parties are equally unpopular. Forty-nine percent of all Americans have an unfavorable view of the Democrats, with the same percentage feeling the same way about the Republicans. Just over one in five questioned dislike both parties.

Back in April, Americans who dislike both parties appeared to mildly favor the GOP on the generic ballot, by a 43-to-39 percent margin, with a large number saying at the time that they would pick a minor-party candidate or stay at home.

"Now, a lot of those voters appear to be bolting to the GOP," Holland said. "Republicans now have a whopping 38-point advantage on the generic ballot among voters who dislike both parties."


CNN used American adults in their sample, Gallup used registered voters and Rasmussen used likely voters.

The midterms for the House and Senate will hinge on a variety of factors, enthusiasm being one major aspect. There is a large gap in enthusiasm benefiting Republicans heading into the midterm elections according to every poll done recently which translates to more Republican voters going to the voting booths than Democrats.

The second and perhaps laregst factor will be Independent voters.

While Democrats heading to vote will generally vote Democratic and the same holds true for Republicans going to vote pulling the lever for the Republicans, it is the Independents that will tip the scales and according to each poll conducted Independents are not happy with how Washington is being run and are favoring Republicans in the generic congressional balloting down by all three organizations listed above.

The unpopularity of Obama's policies and recent legislature that has been jammed through the House and Senate with no bipartisan support and against of the majority of Americans polled on the individual issues has put Democrat's back against the wall.

This is highlighted when not only a Republican candidate can run his campaign coming our against Obama and Democratic leaders' agendas, but Democratic candidates are campaigning against Obama and Pelosi as well.

ABC has a slew of campaign videos from Democrats desperate to distance themselves from their parties agenda, which in and of itself, is very telling.

Watch the campaign video below, Bobby Bright, Democratic Representative from Ala. and tell me if you would know from this ad that he was a Democrat.



They are all running scared, including the White House.

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