In a recent poll released by Rhode Island College Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse's lead over incumbent Lincoln Chafee is growing in that Rhode Island Senate race.
According to the Boston Globe "The telephone poll was conducted between Oct. 23 and 25 and surveyed 408 randomly selected likely voters from around the state." 51% who responded said they were learning toward Whitehouse, 43 for Chafee.
Dear VOID Supporters,
Thank you all for the remarkable growth in Vote Out Incumbents Democracy (VOID) with the help of your support and encouragement.
Many great things are happening and I am very pleased to share them with you.
We have some fantastic new volunteers I want to mention. Zeb Pike and Dennis Sherrard have joined as writers for our web site. Kari Holtz has undertaken the management of one of our first state VOID chapters for Kentucky. And our Indiana site is also on line. (see menu above)
- Charley Reese, a syndicated columnist for LewRockwell.com has written an excellent article on the rationale for voting out incumbents, entitled: Incumbents Out.
We at VOID thank Mr. Reese for adding his voice to the Vote Out Incumbents mission and goal of restoring efficiency, integrity, and responsibility to our government.
Anti-incumbent fever, aimed mostly at Republicans, seems to be continuing to gain momentum. If Republican incumbents in Kentucky are in trouble, then perhaps no incumbent Republican is safe. According to a WHAS-TV-sponsored SurveyUSA poll Democratic challenger John Yarmuth has edged ahead of incumbent Republican Anne Northup.
The new anti-incumbent movement is just beginning. It will grow, and there is nothing the Democratic and Republican Parties can do about that. Here are the only 3 scenarios possible, and why the Republocrats will be powerless against VOID and a growing number of anti-incumbent voices like Anti-Incumbents.com, No To Incumbents, and Tenure Corrupts.
Jack Cafferty hosted a CNN special entitled "Broken Government" this evening. In that show, he called for ousting ALL incumbents in response to our broken government. We thank you Jack for adding your voice to the VOID mission and highlighting our strategy to replace ineffective, corrupt, and irresponsible incumbents who have broken our government and lied about what they were doing every inch of the way.
Among others, some of the evidence of our broken government which Jack cited are: skyrocketing debt, broken and unaccountable voting systems, war based on lies, lack of resources and commitment to win the war, open borders 5 years after 9/11, corruption rampant throughout Congress, corruption in the White House with no bid contracts and hidden projects, illegal immigration without action, and defiance and circumvention of our Constitution by the highest leaders in our government.
Certainly sounds like Jack Cafferty has been reading our web site. Thanks again, Jack. We appreciate very much your taking our Vote Out Incumbents message to prime time TV. It is about time.
Corruption in our government is reaching new proportions surrounding the "Duke" Cunningham investigations. Foley cover-up aside, DeLay, Jefferson, and Abramoff investigations on hold, (could the elections have anything to do with this?), the Cunningham investigations are widening to uncover the many other government officials required to permit Cunningham's bribes to have succeeded.
As the Washington Post reports:
Since Cunningham had no authority to award contracts, he needed the acquiescence of some members of Congress, congressional staff members and Defense Department officials, according to the executive summary of an investigation by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into his activities as a panel member.
In a poll conducted by Zogby International for the Buffalo News since the revelations of the Foley scandal 50% of those voters polled think less favorably regarding Representative Reynolds than they did before the scandal.
Other poll results show soft support for Foley from Republicans, where he leads only by a 50 to 30 percent score. The converse being that 30% of Republicans polled favored the challenger, Democrat Jack Davis. The overall numbers show Davis leading Reynolds 48% to 33. For further breakdown of the poll numbers, click here.
Strategies are flying around this country like a locust storm. Different strategies for different politicians in different districts makes them so numerous as to require a book to cover even half of them. However, there are some core strategies underpinning campaigns for different parties, which I will call Distance, Record, and Coalition.
Distance strategy.
Of course, with the polls as they are, Republicans have the most defensive strategies in general. Their key strategy is to distance themselves from Pres. Bush, many of his policies, and their own voting records on Bush's policies. In addition, Republican candidates are focusing on issues that will resonate locally with their constituents like pro-life or pro-choice positions. This can be a shrewd strategy if their challengers allow them to fly with it - most won't, of course.
The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows a continuing downward trend in incumbency support. This poll shows that voters' support for their incumbent representative is rapidly approaching the 50% mark, down from 63 to 57% in the latest polling, while exactly 50% feel that incumbents overall deserve reelection.
According to an Oct. 2nd poll by the Lycoming College Polling Institute, incumbent Representative Don Sherwood is trailing in the 10th Congressional District race by nearly 10 points to Democratic challenger Christopher Carney. To me one of the more compelling numbers in their breakdown as published in KeystonePolitics.com is that Carney had 26% of the Republican vote. Can we conclude from that number that there's anti-incumbent sentiment in that district?
The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that approval of the job done by Congress is at its lowest in a decade, 32%, and that Americans now trust Democrats over Republicans by 19%. Is this indicative of anti-incumbent sentiments or anti-majority?
Pollster John Zogby's analysis of the latest Reuters/Zogby polling indicates that born-again Christians polled 15-20% less likely to vote Republican in races currently lead by Democrats, but that Democrats are not getting that bump. Read more of his analysis in Undecided America - Key to Control of Congress?
With only about 4 weeks until the general election on November 7, the Ohio senate race pitting Republican incumbent Mike DeWine and his Democratic challenger Congressman Sherrod Brown is not looking good for the incumbent.
There may be a huge backfiring strategy in play in many states and districts. The Washington Post writes about a strategy by both the DNC and RNC to bring voters who don't care about any candidates on the ballot to the polls using ballot initiatives. The hope is that these candidate neutral voters will show up to vote on initiatives like banning smoking, limiting taxes, or stem cell research, in the hope that by virtue of their affinity with that conservative or liberal initiative, they will also vote party ticket for the conservative or liberal candidate.
This has all the makings of a whopping backfire in an election climate of huge anti-incumbent sentiment. These ballot initiatives may very well bring out far more anti-incumbent voters who otherwise would have stayed home for lack of appeal to either of the candidates. If this ballot initiative strategy is as ill-conceived a strategy as I think it is, we could actually see some surprise reversals in some races, where the anti-incumbent voter's turnout became far higher than strategists expected, thanks to the ballot initiatives.
The polls show Nov. 7 should go to the Democrats. But, is switching parties in control of Congress what voters really want? Or, is switching parties the only choice they feel is available to them?
Newsweek writes of its new poll:
For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power.
A Washington Post article says:
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted after the [Foley] revelations found 63 percent of voters "dissatisfied" or "angry" with House Republican leaders, and 73 percent disapproving of the job Congress is doing.
VOID is growing, and my confidence in its future is growing as well.
First, I want to thank Zeb Pike for joining our volunteers. Zeb will be gathering anti-incumbent news related items to write up for our column on the right. Many thanks, Zeb. Thanks also to our other volunteers who have recently joined us and are helping grow VOID's usefulness and support base.
Being a new organization formed just this year, and dependent upon memberships and individual contributions for funding, VOID's impact on this November's elections is nowhere near what it will be in 2008 and beyond, as we reach millions of voters with our goal and mission.
Continue reading "November's elections - Just the beginning!" »
The NY Times reports this morning:
For the first time during President Bush's tenure, the government's interest bill is expected to rise in 2006, from $184 billion in 2005 to $220 billion this year, up nearly 20 percent. That increase -- $36 billion -- makes interest the fastest-growing component of federal spending, and continued brisk growth is likely. According to projections by Congress's budget office, the interest bill will grow to $249 billion in 2007, and $270 billion in 2008.
One other important tidbit. About 45% of those interest payments go to foreign investors, some of them, not wishing the U.S. well, at all. One could argue, we are funding in part, the war against us.
Hewlett Packard's former chief and several others face indictments for illegal spying. How is it then, the White House, also known to have engaged in illegal spying using wiretaps outside FISA's requirement for judicial review, is not held to account? Is it true there is one law for those outside government and another for a privileged few inside government? Is this not the story line of George Orwell's famous Animal Farm about how authoritarians are made?
Incumbent Clay Shaw Jr. (R-FL) has seen his lead over Democratic challenger State Senator Ron Klein evaporate. Senator Klein leads Shaw 43 to 42 percent in the most recent poll by Anzalone Liszt Research. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
Continue reading "Florida Congressional Race Now a Toss-Up" »
The Washington Post has an article wherein columnist Harold Meyerson takes a dig at Congressman Ray LaHood's (R) suggestion that the congressional page system be abolished.
Am I understanding this politician correctly? Politician friend Foley gets in trouble for sexually soliciting a 16 year old Congressional page, and this Republican Representative wants to abandon this 100 year old program of teaching our young people about the workings of our government?
Are Republicans now going to blame children for the actions of pedophiles? What's next? Locking victims of child abuse up for enticing pedophiles with their age? This is what I call sheer PANIC on the part of Republicans. Can we trust politicians who think like this with good governance?
This incident with the Rep. Foley's solicitations toward a teenage page volunteering his time in support of our government, in and of itself, is simply a crime, likely a misdemeanor, perhaps a lower category felony using the internet for solicitation of a minor. The Justice Dept. should handle that like any other crime of its nature.
The bigger story here is the cover-up. Incidents such as these should be reported to the House Ethics Committee and oversight personnel for the page's supervision. The cover-up is manifest in that the only Democratic member to have been notified of this ethics breach and potential danger to pages, was never informed. This incident was kept under wraps by the Republican leadership, hiding truth in order to protect themselves and their party from scandal.
Ohio incumbent Senator Mike DeWine's (R) poll numbers show his seat to be in potential jeopardy against Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown. This is according to a new Mason Dixon poll. While the poll shows them virtually tied, the unfavorable numbers for DeWine are souring against Brown's.
The key to this race is likely to be the votes of independents. In this poll, Brown leads among independents by a 52 percent to 33 percent margin.
The latest Mason Dixon poll of the Senate race in Montana shows Republican incumbent Conrad Burns trailing his Democratic opponent Jon Tester by a 47 percent to 40 percent margin. 3 percent support a third party candidate and 10 percent undecided. Margin of error is 3%. Montana is a traditionally Republican state.
MSNBC reports on a new Mason Dixon poll, the most highly regarded polling organization in the country, which shows incumbent Republican Senator George Allen losing huge ground to Democratic challenger Jim Webb. In July, Sen. Allen held a 16 point lead over Webb. Today, they are in a dead heat at 43% each.
This could become one of the 6 seats Democrats need to take control of the U.S. Senate.
The Washington Post reports internal polling has incumbent John Hostettler (R) trailing not only in the polls, but, significantly in fund raising as well. The challenger, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth (D) who is spending some of his larger fundraising on radio advertising, appears to gaining traction with those ads as he moves ahead in the polls for District 8.
This would may be one of the 15 seats Democrats are hoping for to take control of the House of Representatives.
A recent MSNBC/McClatchy poll finds the contest between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat James Webb tied with both men polling at 43%. This is a significant setback for the Republicans, who at one time saw Allen leading in the polls by as much as 16 percent.
History.
This initial group of folks who founded and grew Vote Out Incumbents Democracy came from a political discussion and debate web site known as WatchBlog founded and owned by Cameron Barrett.
David Remer, a writer and managing editor of WatchBlog, decided in October of 2005 to set up a website called Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy and call it VOID for short. Remer's idea was to provide a place where bloggers and political junkies could congregate and discuss what is wrong with our system of government, provide news stories about how corrupt our system is, and discuss what can be done about it using the power of the vote against incumbents responsible for corrupt politics and ineffective government.
In addition, it was hoped that visitors would come to understand the power of the anti-incumbent vote and join ranks with millions of other voters to oust incompetent, irresponsible, and ineffective politicians in our U.S. Congress. Remer articulated the belief that our political process and governance could be cleaned up and restored to founding principles, if elected officials could be made to realize their re-election depends on their official actions and how effective those actions are in solving our nation's problems and challenges.
Other participants at WatchBlog began to frequent the VOID site and asked about joining the effort. As a result, a volunteer staff was assembled to promote the VOID mission on the the voidnow.org web site and elsewhere on the internet through supportive bloggers. Donations were solicited to help defray the costs of moving VOID from Remer's hosting account at PoliWatch.org, to its own web space, and to secure and transfer domain names for VOID, establish a PayPal account in VOID's name for donations, and other costs associated with spreading the VOID news and information.
As more donations and memberships began to come in, and emails of support, the volunteers at VOID decided VOID was going to need a board of directors. VOID's first board was elected in Dec. 2005, consisting of Daniel Summars, Stephanie Crist, and David R. Remer. Having accomplished that, the board agreed that since we were taking donations and contributions for political action, we would at some point become required to register with the federal government.
The board researched the requirements and began preparing to file documents with the IRS and Federal Elections Commission as donations came closer to requiring registration. Early in 2006 we registered with the IRS and we hit the $1000 revenue milestone requiring our registration with the Federal Elections Commission.
In the summer of 2006, the directors put together a plan to develop local VOID chapters where supporters of VOID could work to effect VOID's mission at the local district levels. At this same time, we initiated discussions with other political organizations regarding coalitions amongst themselves to oust incumbents for their mutual benefit as advocates for better government and politics. Neither of these plans, when implemented, proved fruitful, and were abandoned.
As funding became available, VOID began providing Vote Out Incumbent campaign materials. The funding, all from individual supporters, also permitted upgrades to our web site, management software, and the opportunity to begin to provide some of these materials at cost to members. There is so much more to do.
A small group of individuals have done 99% of the work to bring VOID this far. To go further, will require many more individuals stepping up to volunteer their resources, time, and energy to manage this growing political action committee and anti-incumbent effort. If now is your time, contact us. There is no greater cause for Americans today, than to salvage our nation's and children's future from a broken government and political process.
VOID's Future
Since 2006, VOID has slowly but progressively expanded its outreach to voters and supporters. Our goal is to reduce the reelection rate by least 5% every election cycle. A reduction of incumbent's reelections by as little as 20% will begin to change the political landscape within the Democratic and Republican parties, heaping pressure on them both to begin replacing their priority for wealthy special interests with the will of the anti-incumbent voters for better government results for the regular American family and voters and their children who will inherit the actions of these Congress persons. VOID's greatest limitation is funding. Speech is free. Mass communication is very expensive. But, we are moving on ways to expand that public outreach and acquire the wider grassroots funding base necessary to access the mainstream media.
The VOID Directors and volunteer staff, can only guide and point the way. It is up to you and all of us to invent ways and exert the effort to persuade ever more voters of the necessity to stop reelecting ineffectiveness, incompetence, and irresponsibility.
It is our considered belief that positive changes in American politics and governance can be achieved, but, will take time, and will occur over several, or many election cycles. Changing American politics and governance toward more responsible government is no easy thing. But, we now know how it can be done. All that is left is to help millions of others to reach this same understanding.
We are confident that VOID will influence individuals and groups around the country to find their own ways to spread the the anti-incumbent ballot choice and organize voters under the VOID umbrella. Together we will create the necessary impact upon Congress persons, new and old, to force them to accept that they cannot survive in power without addressing anti-incumbent voter's concerns over debt and deficits, transparency and accountability in government operations, and a dramatic reduction in the influence of money on congressional elections, and the legal bribery and blackmail by lobbyists influencing legislation which the rest of us must shoulder and suffer the consequences of.
Other Notes about VOID.
VOID accepts no sponsorship from any political party or candidates. VOID does not advocate for any political party or individual candidates. VOID's efforts and hopes partially rest on motivating the almost 50% of eligible voters who don't vote, to register and vote. We are not alone in this, as many other organizations are working on voter registration and polling turnout, as well.
Staff and guest writer editorials are the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the goals, motives, or, intentions of the VOID organization. Comments to articles on VOID are never to be construed to represent the views, or beliefs of the VOID organization or its volunteer staff.
VOID's only political agenda is a sustainable future for America by way of more responsive politicians to the needs and demands of the the voters, and a vastly more effective and responsible Congress which, will solve more problems than it creates. The VOID board of directors and staff take no position on any other political issue as representatives of Vote Out Incumbents Democracy.
(revised: April 11, 2010)
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