Election 09: The revolt of the independents
The message isn't being heard in the Seattle area, but elsewhere voters are repudiating party labels and demanding less government and more jobs.
White House
What message did voters send to us on Election Day 2009? Simple answer: It’s the economy, stupid. While no single election has complete or perfect tea leaves, the ones steeping at the bottom of today’s political pot make for interesting reading.
Clearly, the awful state of the economy was the number one issue. In most jurisdictions where a clear choice was on the ballot, voters rejected the change the left has been seeking. Except in Seattle and King County, that is, where high taxes, big-government regulation, and an increasingly business-unfriendly climate again carried the day.
The message local voters sent to Olympia is that drinks are on the house and the bar is open. Just how long will it be before they run out of somebody else’s money? And who should wonder why Boeing is saying “See ya!” Nationally, politicos who support big-ticket, high-tax measures like Obama Care and cap and trade (really cap and tax) and ideas like card check had better take pause. Where the thinking behind these measures was implicitly on the ballot, notably New Jersey and Virginia, they lost.
In New Jersey, the breathtakingly unpopular liberal Gov. Jon Corzine was ousted in a race that was supposed to be close, but wasn’t. In the Virginia governor’s race, the more conservative Bob McDonnell gave an electoral smack down to the more liberal Creigh Deeds that bordered on the humiliating. In both states President Obama made several campaign appearances for the loser.
Voters said they don’t want business as usual, and they crossed party lines or voted differently than they did a year ago in order to send the message. One McDonnell ad that resonated with them stressed low taxes, minimal regulation, and keeping Virginia a right-to-work state. Jobs, baby! Independent voters did a 180, while the always youth vote, which rarely materializes, didn’t show up. Seattle and King County excepted, voters were ornery, and, like in Maine on gay marriage, they balked at the politically correct thing.
But this election was not about the resurgence of the Republican party. We saw that in upstate New York's 23rd congressional district, where wearing a party label doesn’t cut it when you have a track record only Nancy Pelosi would love. Ask Dede Scozzafava, the moderate Republican who pulled out of the race. The New York state message is that free-market, low-tax, limited-government voters will no longer tolerate being kicked to the curb for the sake of “party unity.”
Brand loyalty no longer matters because there’s no trust in the brand. We don’t get our news from the same old untrustworthy sources, and we don’t trust a party label to deliver on policies we want and need. Maybe this explains why many are peeling away from the Republican Party and identifying themselves as independents, the bloc of voters who decide races.
In the past year, we’ve seen an unprecedented rise in conservative and libertarian grass-roots activism. Tea parties and Congressional health care town hall meetings that scare the daylights out of elected officials have shown individual voters that they can make a difference, if united. Party elites who mistakenly regard the sentiment expressed at them as an endorsement of the party or their leadership are clueless.
It’s not the party label that matters in this changed climate so much as the issues. Party leaders better figure this out. It’s time for them to do the bidding of those who cast the votes, walk the precincts, and write the $50 and $100 campaign checks. “You need us more than we need you,” is their message. It’s going to be rough and messy. The people taking power back from politicians are prepared to lose a few skirmishes, as with the final vote in NY-23, electing a Democrat, in order to win the war.
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Comments:
Posted Thu, Nov 5, 7:35 p.m. Inappropriate
This is "high minded", "high quality", "thoughful journalism" "in the public interest"?
Yeah, good luck with that. I'll pass. Way to abort your site the morning after your rebirth.
(And Scott, how does I-1033's result work for ya?)
Posted Thu, Nov 5, 8:02 p.m. Inappropriate
Any hope that Mr. St. Clair was going to provide insight vanished with the screed "King County...high taxes, big-government regulation, and an increasingly business-unfriendly climate again carried the day".
I would suggest that Mr. St. Clair wander over to Nate Silver's 538.com for a better explanation of why New Jersey went for Christie. I'll give him a hint - folks who cared about national level issues overwhelmingly went for Corzine, and folks who cared about New Jersey specific issues went for Christie. Nice investigative research there, Scott.
I would also suggest to Crosscut that there are better and more relevant commentators from the right than Mr. St. Clair.
-rfcarr
Posted Fri, Nov 6, 3:38 a.m. Inappropriate
St. Clair comes is speaking for a fairly significant group of independent voters - more of a disaffected Republican than a true independent. Understanding what's going on in the center is tough and Crosscut should be applauded for publishing someone who does so with integrity, if also with clear political leanings.
Folks attacking the middle like the above two posters are irrelevant at best, at worst the Democratic party's biggest liability. Behavior like this will guarantee the Republicans victory, should they ever put forth a candidate more respectful of the middle than Dino Rossi (albeit something that is going to be a rare occurrence in the short run, given the current status of that party.)
A common respect for the unaffiliated independent from both parties is the glue that will hold this country together, any other behavior is nothing but an attack upon the viability of the entire Country.
Posted Fri, Nov 6, 7:53 a.m. Inappropriate
It's great you publist St Clair, but this are just lazy right wing talking points. You need to demand more from your contributors, unless you're hoping to get on the Wingnut Welfare program.
Posted Fri, Nov 6, 8:17 a.m. Inappropriate
St. Clair is core to the red-state Tea Party crowd, and locally has for years proven to be a smart-mouthpiece for attacking efforts to help those at risk and to provide those who have more with much more. If CrossCut measures this as valuable for its site, I'll likely spend less time here.
Posted Fri, Nov 6, 8:39 a.m. Inappropriate
"Except in Seattle and King County, that is, where high taxes, big-government regulation, and an increasingly business-unfriendly climate again carried the day."
Anyone have any idea what he is talking about here?
I assume he isn't talking about Hutchinson's loss as this was about qualified and not qualified (with Hutchinson being not qualified, in case anyone is confused).
I don't remember voting for any new tax measure or anything else that could be called "big-government" or "business unfriendly" in King County.
In Seattle we renewed the Housing Levy. Money for construction jobs and housing low income people is neither business unfriendly nor big government -- unless, I suppose, you believe any sort of government assistance (road building, unemployment, prisons, economic development efforts, school spending, etc.) are "big government".
King County voted no on 1033, but so did most counties in the state. This includes a majority of counties on both the east and west sides of the state. So that can't be what he's talking about.
King County and Seattle voted strongly for R-71. Big business in the state strongly supported the measure, so this isn't anti- big business. R71 isn't big government. It is actually one more step to getting government out of people's bedrooms. Again, this can't be what Scott is talking about.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm happy to listen to Scott clarify.
Posted Fri, Nov 6, 10:04 a.m. Inappropriate
Well, I think the subconscious message independent voters are sending is an alarm signalling the chaotic meltdown of the republican party further boiling over its noxious brew of religious fanaticism and hysterical anti-government nonsense. Terribly messy and disgraceful, but what fun to watch, summed up by this one-liner joke: Sarah Palin.
Posted Fri, Nov 6, 12:33 p.m. Inappropriate
Mr. St. Clair only hears those who agree with his dogma.
What's the difference between the Titanic and the current GOP - at least the Titanic had booze and a band. (Actually, come to think of it...)
http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/411905_joel06.html
Posted Sun, Nov 8, 9:40 a.m. Inappropriate
Scott misses the point on the King County Executive's race. If the Republicans had found a candidate who actually was the person Hutchison pretended to be (i.e. moderate, non-partisan, welcoming of other views), and with a little real world experience beyond teleprompter reading, this race would have been closer at the end. But even then, a Republican win would have been hard to pull off. This is still a very Democratic county and the real Hutchison (once exposed by Constantine's hard-hitting campaign) was too right wing to get 50 percent of the vote.
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