McKinstry: New York Republicans are swimming upstream

7/16/13 9:49 PM

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Gerald McKinstry
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McKinstry: New York Republicans are swimming upstream

November 8, 2012 3:18 PM By GERALD MCKINSTRY
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Gerald McKinstry

Joanne Cox wasn't thrilled with her options on Election Day. The economy gave her pause, but so did women's issues: So Cox opted for President Barack Obama, a Democrat, because she

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McKinstry: New York Republicans are swimming upstream

7/16/13 9:49 PM

believed he would be a better advocate. When it came to the State Senate contest -- where Assemb. George Latimer (D-Rye) and Bob Cohen (R-New Rochelle) were locked in a nasty and bitter battle for the open 37th District seat -- the nurse from Gerald McKinstry
Gerald McKinstry is a member of the Newsday editorial board. bio | email | twitter

New Rochelle said it was hard to know who was telling the truth.

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DATABASES: Contributions to NYS Senate | Contributions to NYS Assembly | Local donations for 2012 race PHOTOS: Election 2012: Westchester, Rockland, HV | U.S. votes in 2012 Election | Obama supporters celebrate There, Cox opted for the candidate she believed was the "lesser of two evils." Again, she voted for the Democrat. The president's coattails proved to be long in the Hudson Valley, where Democrats won handily in many down-ballot races and knocked off Republican incumbents in others -- for the House of Representatives, Assembly and State Senate.
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And Latimer beat Cohen. That race was a surprise to Republicans, since two years ago Cohen came within 700 votes of beating longtime incumbent Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (who announced her retirement in January). But he garnered only 45 percent of the vote this time, to Latimer's 54. Now it looks like New York is under one-party rule: Democrats have a governor, the attorney general, two U.S. senators and both houses of the State Legislature, as it appears Democrats captured the majority in the State Senate. They have 21 of New York's 27

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congressional seats. In 2010, Republicans had eight seats. Republicans had a slate of strong congressional and state candidates in places like Westchester, Suffolk and upstate New York, but still took a beating -- and lost ground. They have to be asking, "What happened?" The answer: Obama and

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a roughly 2-to-1 Democratic enrollment advantage. "You think you're making progress," said Republican strategist Bill O'Reilly (he writes a column for Newsday), who worked on congressional and State Senate races, including Cohen's. Republicans also lost ground in state and congressional races that they made in recent years. "It's like an arm just swept the pieces off the kitchen table." Obama won New York with 3.8 million votes to Mitt Romney's 2.2 million, according to unofficial numbers released by the state Board of Elections. The president won Westchester with 60 percent of the vote and Rockland with 53 percent.
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McKinstry: New York Republicans are swimming upstream

7/16/13 9:49 PM

Romney won Putnam, where state Sen. Greg Ball (R-Patterson) held on to his seat. After making strides in local races in recent years (Hayworth and Castelli were examples of those successes), Republicans again got Campaign contributions to the State Assembly races creamed -- something that seems to happen every four years in predominantly blue New York. "It's like a salmon swimming upstream," said Mike Edelman, a political strategist who has been a Republican since 1964, but this year changed his registration to unaffiliated. "The numbers keep getting larger and larger in favor of the Democrats." Campaign contributions to the State Senate races At 5.4 million registered voters in 2012, Democrats have double the number of Republicans in this state. In 2008, there were 5.2 million registered Dems and 2.7 million Republicans. Presidential-year losses will continue to happen unless Republicans embrace more moderate voices and views, especially here in New Election 2012: Complete coverage York. That also means appealing to women, Hispanics and younger voters. It means not drawing a line in the sand on issues like immigration reform, women's rights, balanced budgets and debt. The way Edelman sees it, Republicans need to "be in touch with the changing face of America." If they aren't -- and if they ignore the state's growing unaffiliated populace, who also tend to be more middle of the road on social and fiscal issues -- Republicans can expect to eke out some victories in local races in the off years only to lose bigger ones every four years. Gerald McKinstry is a member of the Newsday editorial board. User rating:
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Community Bob Fois

8 months ago

A Republican's natural base is pro-life, conservative and Republican -- as in the reform aspects of the Republican platform -- yet too many of these knuckleheads divorce themselves from Reagan Republicanism as if the voters are allergic to a pithy communicator. Take a look at Chris Christie, who could have been a wonderful running mate nationally. Locally, look at the two Republican Mayors, John Spencer and Phil Amicone, who won Yonkers with 60%+ of the vote not so long ago -- and all the Republicans winning county legislative races. They won as conservative Republicans, often unabashed pro-life Republicans, as did
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McKinstry: New York Republicans are swimming upstream

7/16/13 9:49 PM

conservative Republicans, often unabashed pro-life Republicans, as did Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino in 2009.

Bob Fois

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8 months ago

A Republican's natural base is pro-life, conservative and Republican -- as in the reform aspects of the Republican platform -- yet too many of these knuckleheads divorce themselves from Reagan Republicanism as if the voters are allergic to a pithy communicator. Take a look at Chris Christie, who could have been a wonderful running mate nationally. Locally, look at the two Republican Mayors, John Spencer and Phil Amicone, who won Yonkers with 60%+ of the vote not so long ago -- and all the Republicans winning county legislative races. They won as conservative Republicans, often unabashed pro-life Republicans, as did Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino in 2009. Yes... we have to reach out to women (and not on the abortion issue) and minorities (and not as liberals). But we also must reach out to Democrats who vote Republicans and count them in our independent base of voters as much as the non-affiliated voters. This will take months of door-to-door, voter registration drives and voter identification -- including listening to groups on issues within local communities on a week-by-week basis. However, this is the kind of work some political leaders and elected officials do not want to do ... and it's the kind of basic marketing and civic engagement that helped Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats kick our ass.

Bob Fois

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8 months ago

Republicans win as a reformers. The problem is that on a state and federal level, GOP insiders have been part of the same corruption as the Democrats since the Clinton administration. As for the election in Westchester and the Hudson Valley, Republican losers made two strategic mistakes: First, their branding was almost non-existent in mailings. Too many consultants advised them not to put the word "Republican" on their campaign literature. Second, the losers tended to avoid the conservative issues and admonished the Tea Party volunteers. Memo To The Rocket Scientists: Those independents (and Democrats) who will vote Republican vote for a candidate on conservative issues -- the same way liberal independents come out for Democrats (not Republicans) on liberal issues. Too many Republican strategists led their candidates to the left, for the sake of coming across and pretending to be centrist moderates, though voters were not fooled (and actually fairly annoyed at the longstanding act). These liberal to moderate independents voted for the Democrats in this election, in record numbers. Frankly, why are we as Republican campaigns trying to beat the Democrats at a game they have owned since 1932?

Bob Fois

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8 months ago

What does a human being have to do to have a comment moderated by this newspaper?

Bob Fois

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8 months ago

Republicans win as a reformers. The problem is that on a state and federal level, GOP insiders have been part of the same corruption as the Democrats since the Clinton administration.
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/gerald-mckinstry/mckinstry-new-york-republicans-are-swimming-upstream-1.4201869 Page 4 of 5

McKinstry: New York Republicans are swimming upstream

7/16/13 9:49 PM

Clinton administration. As for the election in Westchester and the Hudson Valley, Republican losers made two strategic mistakes: First, their branding was almost non-existent in mailings. Too many consultants advised them not to put the word "Republican" on their campaign literature. Second, the losers tended to avoid the conservative issues and admonished the Tea Party volunteers. Memo To The Rocket Scientists: Those independents (and Democrats) who will vote Republican vote for a candidate on conservative issues -- the same way liberal independents come out for Democrats (not Republicans) on liberal issues. Too many Republican strategists led their candidates to the left, for the sake of coming across and pretending to be centrist moderates, though voters were not fooled (and actually fairly annoyed at the longstanding act). These liberal to moderate independents voted for the Democrats in this election, in record numbers. Frankly, why are we as Republican campaigns trying to beat the Democrats at a game they have owned since 1932?
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David A. Singer

8 months ago

Republicans can run competitively - especially in Westchester -- if they grow a pair -- and forthrightly disassociate themselves from the tea party adherents. Hayworth lost to Maloney in part because she (figuratively got caught with her pants down. For two solid years -- she was a solid adherent to tea party directives, Grover Norquist, etc... then she converts to a bi-partisan player with 4 months to go before re-election. Nope -- people weren't buying it. Republicans on the local front need to clearly and loudly repudiate the hard right drift of the national party. I never heard that from Castelli, Cohen, Hayworth. And a word-tothe-wise for Rob Astorino -- he better pipe up on this. He can't just say that he's focused on local issues. He must roundly and loudly repudiate people like KY Senator McConnell. Otherwise -- the only Republicans left locally will be fossils.
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