GOP Candidate Distances Self From Bush

GOP Candidate Distances Self From Bush

Friday September 30, 2005

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

Associated Press Writer

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - Marilyn Brewer, a leading Republican candidate for the nation's only open House seat, stared into the TV camera and proclaimed her support for the president.

She was not talking about George W. Bush.

``I stand side by side with Ronald Reagan on less taxes and less government,'' Brewer told voters at a candidate forum.

(snip)

Later, the self-described loyal Republican who voted for the president in 2004 explained her calculus: ``If the election was this year ... he would not be re-elected.''

(snip)

Less than a year ago, Bush won nearly 60 percent of the vote in this hilly swath of coastal California where the airport is named for John Wayne and residents tend to be white, affluent and Republican. But these days, the president's job approval ratings nationally are at an all-time low, in part because of the war in Iraq and the administration's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina.

Brewer is keeping her distance from Bush, and is instead stressing her support for abortion rights and the environment to win the votes of moderate Republicans, Democrats and independents.

She hopes to cobble together enough support to surprise the Republican front-runner, state Sen. John Campbell, a conservative former car dealer endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

(snip)

If no candidate wins a majority next week, the top finishers from each party will advance to a runoff in December.

The race is complicated by the candidacy of Jim Gilchrist, a founder of the Minuteman Project that sponsors citizen patrols along the Mexican border. Running as a candidate for the American Independent Party, he threatens to siphon votes from Campbell, who has advocated building a fence along the border.

(snip)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5313334,00.html

distance themselves from Bush, and I wonder after Katrina if "less government" will still resonate with voters. This might be an provocative time for Democratic leadership to call on Republicans to detail which programs and agencies they feel are useless, and what losing public schools, air, water and food protections, job safety and wage protections, etc, will mean to voters' quality of life.

republican candidate Doug Forrestor for governor. I say good. I want * to have a lot of pics taken with Forrestor, especially with their arms draped around each other. And then have Corzine proclaim that Forrestor is * lite and not his own man.

But then again, lots of computer screen voting in NJ. Y'never know.

I think that this can work in a primaries, when you have several pubs and they need to differentiate themselves and one way is selecting your favorite pub president.