This is what GOP brand poisoning looks like

[jefferson_dem]

This is what GOP brand poisoning looks like
In Ohio and elsewhere, Tuesday's election results offered troubling signs for Tea Party conservatism

By Steve Kornacki


Firefighter Tom Sullivan campaigns against Issue 2 outside a polling location in Strongsville, Ohio Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011. (Credit: AP)

The most recent national survey from the Quinnipiac Polling Institute suggests a serious image problem for the Republican Party, with just 28 percent of voters saying they have a favorable view of the GOP and 57 percent saying they have an unfavorable one. Tuesday night offered a demonstration of why this is, with voters in several states siding against some of the most prominent faces and ideas of the Tea Party-era Republican Party.

The marquee contest was in Ohio, where voters repealed repealed SB 5, the law that curbs state public employee bargaining rights and that was championed earlier this year by Gov. John Kasich and his fellow state Republicans. The outcome wasn’t a surprise — polls had shown it coming. But the size of the verdict, a 63-37 percent margin in the early returns, was still striking, punctuating a broader shift in public opinion that’s taken place in Ohio in 2011.

The year started with a new Republican governor taking office and a new Republican majority in the Legislature, both results of the GOP’s 2010 midterm landslide. But once in power, the Republicans overreached, with SB 5 inciting a fierce and sustained backlash and angering many of the swing voters who were crucial to the GOP’s ’10 success. Kasich’s poll numbers crashed early in the year and have yet to recover much. A week before the election, his approval rating stood at 36 percent.

There were other significant results on Tuesday too. In Maine, where a Tea Party-aligned Republican, Paul LePage, squeaked to victory in the governor’s race last year, voters restored same-day voter registration, which had been eliminated by LePage and his Republican allies in the Legislature earlier in the year. Like eroding collective bargaining rights, tightening restrictions on voting has emerged as another major point of emphasis for Republicans in statehouses across the country this year. The new laws that have been enacted or proposed generally affect traditionally Democratic constituencies disproportionately. The outcome in Maine wasn’t even close on Tuesday: 60 percent of voters defied LePage and the GOP and embraced same-day registration.

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http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/this_is_what_gop_brand_poisoning_looks_like/

[uponit7771]

1. Restricting people from voting should be a federal felony charge

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. +1