From The New York Times, 9/20/06:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/us/politics/20centrists.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=6b311897625c6fd8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
For Governors in G.O.P. Slots, a Liberal Turn
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
LOS ANGELES --
Here are the things that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be bragging
about on the campaign trail:
an initiative to lower greenhouse gases with the onus on big
companies, a $1 increase in the state’s minimum wage and a program to
open up access to prescription drugs.
Mr. Schwarzenegger, who six months ago fashioned himself a Republican
reformer bent on hobbling entrenched Democratic institutions, is not
just tolerating positions generally associated with liberal
candidates.
Rather, he is using them as the centerpiece of his re-election
campaign, marking the first time in a generation that a Republican
governor here has clung to the left during a re-election fight.
The strategy is not unique to Mr. Schwarzenegger’s campaign.
Across the nation’s 36 races for governor, Republican candidates in
states heavy with moderate or Democratic voters are playing up their
liberal positions on issues including stem cell research, abortion and
the environment, while remaining true to their party’s platform on
taxes and streamlining government.
In Massachusetts, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who is seeking to fill the
seat that will be vacated by Gov. Mitt Romney, has openly split with
Mr. Romney on abortion rights and stem cell research;
her views are shared by the Republican candidate for governor in
Illinois, Judy Baar Topinka, who also supports civil unions for
same-sex couples.
In Maryland, the Republican incumbent, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., is
pushing for increasing state aid for programs for the disabled and
imposing tighter restrictions on coal-fired plants;
the Republican governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, opposes the death
penalty.
In Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell also parts ways with the Republican
Party on civil unions and financing for stem cell research.
Governing Republican and campaigning Democratic is not a new
technique;
George E. Pataki, the New York governor, has made a career winning
elections as a Republican in a mostly Democratic state.
But political experts say that the strategy is particularly pervasive
this year, as Republicans seek to distance themselves from an
unpopular president and to respond to what is widely recognized as
polarization fatigue among many voters.
"The conservative side of Republican party has been so dominant in
recent years that we haven’t seen a lot of this phenomenon at work
until this year," said Bruce E. Cain, the director of the Institute of
Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Now, Mr. Cain said, the easiest way for Republicans to "stay
competitive is to take deviations from the standard G.O.P. lines."
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Ya got it? Remember it.
Harry
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