After Francine Busby lost in the CA-50th, a poll was commissioned by MyDD.com and a California based 527 called the "Courage Campaign" to find out exactly why the Democratic message failed to win in the district. The
poll was released today and had some surprises:
Ultimately, low Independent turnout was attributed to Busby's own campaign message, which focused on what she and others characterized as a complete breakdown of Republican honesty and integrity in Washington. Findings indicate running against the "culture of corruption" was a failure and actually backfired. The poll shows widespread mistrust of both parties and the promise of "cleaning up Washington" was not believable, particularly to Independents, who instead took out their frustrations by voting for third party candidates.
The data also points to the popularity of Gov. Schwarzenegger, whose public persona is the maverick "outsider" and the belief held by respondents that California is headed in the right direction, especially compared to more negative views towards President Bush and the direction the U.S. is headed.
Framing the Republicans as a "culture of corruption" and the Democrats as an alternative is not believable? Not good news for Democrats in close races around the country.
Schwarzenegger as "maverick 'outsider' " is also important. It might explain why Rudy Giuliani leads all polls for the GOP in 2008 and it certainly makes Jim Geraghty's
post from a few days ago - that Arnold's race is a must-win for Republicans - look spot on.
