Affluent Voters Switch Brands

[Janett_Reno]

http://online.wsj.com/public/article...221495363.html

DENVER -- Driving her city bus through downtown Denver, Angela Williams would seem to be one of those "invisible" people Hillary Clinton and fellow Democrats appeal to. She's a Hispanic union member who earns $39,000 a year.

TURNABOUT


• The Situation: Republicans are struggling to reassure their religious-right base while Democrats enjoy rising support from high-income voters.
• The Backdrop: Religious-right voters have elevated "values" concerns like abortion in the Republican Party, once more closely identified with business issues.
• The Backlash: Democrats are attracting some affluent, secular voters less concerned with "values" issues and more impervious to warnings of higher taxes than some Republicans assume.Jim Kelley, whose office Ms. Williams drives by, looks like one of those plutocrats whom Democrats are talking about taxing more. He buys companies for the $7 billion private-equity firm Vestar Capital Partners, with headquarters on New York's Park Avenue.

Think again. Ms. Williams, 43 years old, is a conservative Christian whose biggest political fear is that fellow Republicans might nominate abortion-rights supporter Rudy Giuliani for president. Mr. Kelley, 53, is writing big campaign checks for Barack Obama and other Democrats -- and taxes don't make his top 10 list of critical political issues.

In this newly competitive state and elsewhere, Republicans are struggling to reassure their nervous religious-right base, while Democrats are profiting from increasing support among high-income voters. And that support may be more impervious to warnings of higher taxes than some Republicans assume.


"The Democratic Party stands more for creating equal opportunity," says Mr. Kelley. He says the party "speaks more to me on issues of the environment, and even more to me on national security," while he criticizes Republican stands on "so-called moral issues" such as gay marriage.

As for proposals by Democratic congressional leaders and presidential contenders to raise taxes on high earners, Mr. Kelley says: "The pocketbook, the taxes, that's issue 11. And the balance has swayed so far in [favor of] the 10 other things."

In the 2004 election, exit surveys showed President Bush defeated John Kerry by 58% to 41% among those earning more than $100,000. In 2006, Republican House candidates edged Democrats among that group by 51% to 47%. Now the Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll shows Americans earning more than $100,000 want Democrats to win the White House next year by 48% to 41%, and want Democrats to win control of Congress by 45% to 42%.

Campaign-finance data represents another yardstick. The top five Democratic presidential candidates raised $242 million through the first three quarters of 2007, according to Federal Election Commission figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The top five Republican candidates have raised $167 million.


"There's a difference in the type of giver that I've seen," observes Kirk Dornbush, a veteran Democratic fund-raiser who runs an Atlanta-based biotechnology firm. In the past, he explains, affluent donors from business or the professions were often "people that needed access."

Now, he says, Democrats are benefiting from concerns over America's "loss of standing in the world," Mr. Bush's environmental policies, and concern over the possibility of recession. An increasing number of high-income Americans "are yearning for something different. And something different is the Democrats."

As Mr. Kelley's disdain for "so-called moral issues" suggests, the roles he and Ms. Williams play in politics are connected. Since the Reagan era, conservative Christians have grown in prominence as Republican foot soldiers. Voters like Ms. Williams have elevated "values" concerns in a party once associated more with the Chamber of Commerce than the church. "I'm pro-life. Basically, that's why I'm Republican," Ms. Williams says.


She also agrees with Republican criticism of Democrats' economic policies. "Democrats are all for social programs which raise my taxes," says Ms. Williams, who lives in a working-class neighborhood. "I'm not working to pay for people to sit at home watching cable all day."

Over time, both those concerns have generated a backlash in Colorado among affluent, secular voters with different priorities. "Twenty-five years ago...business could safely vote Republican and believe that their interests in business were going to be taken care of," says Neil Westergaard, editor of the Denver Business Journal. "As the Republican Party has changed, I think that became less [true]."

While business leaders still generally favor holding down taxes, he says, "Colorado already has low taxes and has always. And we began in the 1990s to start feeling the effects of limited tax support for things like higher education and transportation, which coincidentally became more important as economic-development issues for the business community."

Democrats cashed in on that shift here in 2006, when gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter won business support by opposing stringent tax-limitation measures backed by his Republican rivals. "We found a way to talk about investing in infrastructure that makes sense to the affluent and it makes sense to the business community," Mr. Ritter, now governor, says in an interview.

Democrats aim to repeat that success in the 2008 presidential race, with Mr. Kelley helping to provide the financial fuel. His wife, Amie, a documentary filmmaker, jokes that they seem to hold fund-raisers at their elegant Denver home at the rate of "one a month."

Since 2004, the private-equity executive has donated more than $183,000 to federal candidates -- more than twice as much as he had given in the previous 12 years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Scott Reed, who managed Republican Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, sees three overlapping problems for Republicans among business leaders and high-income voters. One is desire to go with the winning side at a time when Democrats have captured Congress; a second is loss of confidence in the Bush administration's competence; and a third is "a sense that the leadership of the Republican Party is too beholden to a small group of self-appointed social conservative leaders."

In 2008, Mr. Reed adds, "Republicans have to go back to the basics and use the new presidential nominee to rebrand the entire party."

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Now no matter what you want to say about Democrats, Hillary and Rudy, this sums up the United States Of America pretty darn good right now. Read this article twice. Wm has pointed these things out to you as well. I know the one liners that will come, Democrats will raise your taxes, Hillary is Bill's wife, we gop are the christians, we Republicans don't believe in gay rights and are against abortion, we have the faith and values and we are the morals people.

Dude, can you see the problems i am pointing out and this article points out? Throwing Hagel, Lugar, Warner away wasn't good. Putting them on a swift boat and sending them down the river doesn't look good for the gop party. To say my way or the highway isn't good on how this Republican adm runs things, looks like bullies. Not good. No talking at all, our way and that is the final answer. Faith and values that has been preached and hammered out, look what Republicans are saying about faith and values? These are the same Republicans that say they can't vote for Rudy. Morals, again gone. No morals. In the up comming weeks and months Vitter will be posted on your tv screens again as his mess is getting worse. Vitter, Larry Craig was the ring leaders to impeach Bill. These were the moral gate keepers dude. One seeing prostitutes and the other seeing men in bathroom stalls.

Now tell me this dude, is one sin worse or bigger than others or does all sin count the same? That is if you feel Republicans datting prostitutes and Republicans datting homo sexuals are a sin or Bill seeing Monica on the side. I was taught that sin was sin, no matter if it was big, little or etc it equals the same. It isn't just the sexual morals either but morals that this adm has behaved in, run away spending, bullying it's on people,making things up to go to war, not carrying at all about illegal imigration, our economy.

So you are wrong when you say religion and faith does not play into polictics, it does. This dude was where Karl Rove was a genious. Sell the American public that we are the christians, we are the gate keepers, we are faith and values but he forgot to tell his party one thing, to atleast act like it and don't get caught datting homo's, go to church ever Sunday and pretend to practice what you preach. Do not let your morals guard down. They did in every branch of the gov and now dude, the religious right wing vote is in disarray. Oh yes it has Pat Robertson but now people can see thru him and see him to be a hypocrite, just like others, say one thing and live another. Won't work, the American people have woke up and alot of Republicans have woke up.

One thing that can be hammered on dude, is watch out the Democrats are comming and are going to raise your taxes. Read what alot of Republicans are saying, well we do not believe this is good and we hope they don't but it is 10 other top issues before taxes and Republicans fall flat on their face in those top 10. Taxes being number 11. Those faith, values, morals are higher than taxes on the list.

I will say this in the defense of all Republicans running, they all have a 100 pound weight on their shoulders named George Weasel Bush. They can't shake him off. The public keeps seeing the neocons and all the bad and wrong for the last 8 years. This is why the big oil men and big money backed Rudy, because he is an extension of what we have now. He represents all big oil wants and needs. Next, conservatives was beatten like a drum in last election. Some that lasted played to be a Democrat. Rudy is a Libberman. Both these men play what side should i be on this next week. The brains in the gop party thought, well if all conservative candidates are being beat we better go to the middle and pick us a Democrat to run. They felt we might pick up the Independent votes and some Democrat votes and screw the conservatives because we can tell them anything and make them vote for us. They never thought that conservatives would speak there mind and raise there voice. They have. wm is not in a minority because many are speaking up dude. They know what Rudy is. Like Joe Biden says, Rudy says a noun, a verb and 9/11 and this is what he is trying to be elected on.

W did the same with this famous speech, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, 9/11, 9,11, 9,11, and god bless america. Then the people clap and say go W go. That line will not work for Rudy. Many Republicans say why they won't vote for Rudy is because he is not a conservative. It backfired. Plus Hillary has spanked him before to where he had to quit. Your best shot dude was to stick with party lines. Try to distance yourself from the neocons, keep the faith and values and keep the morals and try to distance from we are not the big spenders w and Chains was.

The Democrats are not going to win an election running a Republican in Libermann and the Republicans are not going to win an election running a Democrat in Rudy. Fred had to want to run and it shows he is being pushed and he has no fire about him and doesn't care if he gets it or not. This is a big problem among many. Rudy does want it. Romney and Huckabee as well as Ron Paul desire it but big money has spoke and most of it went Rudy's way. Obama and Edwards also want it with Hillary and are trying to push her.

So see you have to get the Republican base and sell them on a Rudy. You are going to run across many, many wm's within the Republican party and have those same questions he has. Why Rudy? Then they will tell you of the dislikes. Like wm has said, your response can't be we hate Hillary, she will raise your taxes, she is a woman, she is Bill's wife, and lastly who is the worse of the two evils? Beacuse then they say, why did we pick an evil? You must beat the Democrats on faith, values, morals and the issues. The Democrats can use this adm as an example of what you will get if you elect a Republican but they have to be careful and beat the Republicans on faith, values, morals and the issues. Neither party can be elected with one liners.

[Janett_Reno]

This is more of the same and these votes count for alot. These people must be addressed or it could be a long road into the future.

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GOP Is Losing Grip
On Core Business Vote

Deficit Hawks Defect
As Social Issues Prevail;
'The Party Left Me'


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1191...?mod=sphere_ts

Some business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don't share. In manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry, some Republicans want direct government help with soaring health-care costs, which Republicans in Washington have been reluctant to provide. And some business people want more government action on global warming, arguing that a bolder plan is not only inevitable, but could spur new industries.

Already, economic conservatives who favor balanced federal budgets have become a much smaller part of the party's base. That's partly because other groups, especially social conservatives, have grown more dominant. But it's also the result of defections by other fiscal conservatives angered by the growth of government spending during the six years that Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress.

The most prominent sign of dissatisfaction has come from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, long a pillar of Republican Party economic thinking. He blasted the party's fiscal record in a new book. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said: "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."

Some well-known business leaders have openly changed allegiances. Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive John Mack, formerly a big Bush backer, now supports Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. John Canning Jr., chairman and chief executive of Madison Dearborn Partners, a large private-equity firm, now donates to Democrats after a lifetime as a Republican. Recently, he told one Democratic Party leader: "The Republican Party left me" -- a twist on a line Ronald Reagan and his followers used when they abandoned the Democratic Party decades ago to protest its '60s and '70s-era liberalism.

Concern for their fiscal reputation is reflected in the fights that President Bush and congressional Republicans now are picking with the new Democratic majority over annual appropriations and an expansion of a children's health program, in hopes of placating party conservatives.