Hours before Chris Christie claimed victory in the Republican Primary for New Jersey Governor, the Politico printed an article claiming that the race between Christie and Steve Lonegan was a classic moderate versus conservative battle:
The contest pits two wings of the Republican Party against each other, with Christie widely viewed as the moderate conservative with more general election appeal in a Democratic state like New Jersey and Lonegan framed as the more orthodox conservative.
The article also highlighted the Lonegan strategy of trying to frame Christie as a “moderate” in hopes of gaining traction among traditional, conservative Republican primary voters:
Lonegan has sought to turn Christie’s establishment support against him by questioning Christie’s willingness to let moderate Republicans from outside the state speak on his behalf.
When asked about the endorsements Christie has gotten from popular Republican figures, Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan quickly interjected, “You mean all these moderate Republicans helping Chris Christie?”
“I don’t think anybody really cares what Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney thinks,” Shaftan said. “They are obsessed with Giuliani, but everyone knows he is a liberal.”
Shaftan dismissed Christie’s advantage in the polls and insisted they are sorely underestimating primary turnout.
“All these experts have shown complete ignorance in New Jersey,” he said.
“This is going be a big turnout in this one,” he added. “If the turnout’s over 400,000, we win easily.”
The problem is that this tired strategy didn’t deliver Lonegan. Even if Lonegan had won by flogging Christie for being moderate, he would have been significantly disadvantaged coming out of last night’s contest because the campaign would have spent little time connecting with the voters about real issues – jobs, taxes, government spending, education.
The Christie strategy focused on the issues. This allows Christie to come out of the primary strong, as voters are already basically aware of what Christie plans to do to address the state’s problems.
As I’ve examined before (here, here, and here), Republicans have no hope of making significant gains if we can’t focus on issues voters care about and leave the pointless “conservative versus moderate” argument behind.
Like it or not, the electorate (even the primary electorate) is different than it was even ten years ago. Voters, especially during an economic downturn, are focused on kitchen-table issues. Successful candidates are the ones that can connect to voters on these issues.
Related Posts:
Voters May say they’re Independents, but are actually just lost Republicans
Can Republicans Win by Moderating?
2010 Looking Good for GOP as Independents Lean Right
Conservative versus Moderate Strategy Unhealthy for GOP
Posted by Tyler Harber on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 7:11 AM
Hours before Chris Christie claimed victory in the Republican Primary for New Jersey Governor, the Politico printed an article claiming that the race between Christie and Steve Lonegan was a classic moderate versus conservative battle:
The article also highlighted the Lonegan strategy of trying to frame Christie as a “moderate” in hopes of gaining traction among traditional, conservative Republican primary voters:
The problem is that this tired strategy didn’t deliver Lonegan. Even if Lonegan had won by flogging Christie for being moderate, he would have been significantly disadvantaged coming out of last night’s contest because the campaign would have spent little time connecting with the voters about real issues – jobs, taxes, government spending, education.
The Christie strategy focused on the issues. This allows Christie to come out of the primary strong, as voters are already basically aware of what Christie plans to do to address the state’s problems.
As I’ve examined before (here, here, and here), Republicans have no hope of making significant gains if we can’t focus on issues voters care about and leave the pointless “conservative versus moderate” argument behind.
Like it or not, the electorate (even the primary electorate) is different than it was even ten years ago. Voters, especially during an economic downturn, are focused on kitchen-table issues. Successful candidates are the ones that can connect to voters on these issues.
Related Posts:
Voters May say they’re Independents, but are actually just lost Republicans
Can Republicans Win by Moderating?
2010 Looking Good for GOP as Independents Lean Right