Democrats erode GOP's hold at Shore (NJ)

[ProSense]

Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006

Democrats erode GOP's hold at Shore

With coordination and big money, they have made inroads in the southern counties, including two Assembly victories.

By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer

With pinpoint precision, Democrats are marching through Republican strongholds in the southern Jersey Shore communities, already picking up two Assembly seats, a freeholder seat, and a surrogate's post.

Snip...

The Democrats are fueled by the fund-raising power of George Norcross III's expanding Camden County machine, Gov. Corzine, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D., Camden), and national Democrats.

Snip...

What is significant - and troubling to Republicans - is that the political aggression is finding success in areas long held by the GOP.

Snip...

Democrats made contacts with the increasing numbers of immigrants in southeastern New Jersey from the Far East and Middle East, persuaded some popular Republicans to become Democrats, and had armloads of money to pay for campaign advertising and street workers.

more...

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/13866446.htm?source=rss&channel=inquirer_local

This is a good sign for Sen. Menendez, who replaced Corzine, but is up for re-election this year.

[Infomaniac]

1. A very good sign.

[karynnj]

2. That's really a good sign

I remember from last September one of the 5 groups, Kerry spoke to was a large rally of Indians (India) in Edison in Central NJ.

It is great that Democrats are reaching out to this population which really does seem to be expanding quickly. (Which has the side benefit of lots of good Indian, Thai, Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the state.)

[calimary]

3. Uh-HUH! This is what Howard Dean talked about - why we should

take a lesson from ralph reed's work-from-the-ground-up strategy, grassroots, little pipsqueak campaigns for positions nobody cares about, and you build upward from there. And we are. And we do. And we will. And we will keep winning.

[gratuitous]

4. That's it: We fight, we win

Maybe not every last battle, but we sure as the world weren't winning with McAuliffe's "targeted" strategy, and we weren't making any gains or inroads. There are a lot of Republican "stronghold" states that with a little nudging might turn Democratic, but the national party has written them off for decades. Most of these states are in the South, but Democrats have also largely conceded Kansas, Colorado, Ohio, and the Dakotas as irretrievably Republican. And so they are, when you don't fight for them.

We won't win every race, that's an unrealistic goal. But by contesting every race, and running competitive candidates, the GOP has to spend some of its huge coffers on races heretofore considered "safe." That means less money available for other races, and let's face it: We're the majority of Americans. Sheer numbers of people can accomplish what huge piles of money can accomplish, and although Democrats are forever behind in the fund-raising sweepstakes, we put more feet on the streets of the precincts, knocking on doors, and talking directly with voters. Let's exploit our edge there, and try to blunt the edge the GOP has in money.

We fight, we may win. We don't fight, we will lose.

[Wilms]

5. kick

[Arugula Latte]

6. Fuckin-A!

Excuse the potty mouth, but it had to be said ... :blush: