Pro-Abortion Democrats Try to Salvage 2010 Elections, Pro-Life Outcome Likely
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 22, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading Democrats insist the 2010 election campaign can be salvaged even though polling data in races across the nation suggests a pro-life landslide will occur in November. On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claimed pro-abortion Democratic candidates were experiencing a “resurgence."
At a press briefing, Hoyer touted a new Gallup poll giving Democrats a one percentage point advantage when Americans are asked which party they plan to support in November.
But that poll differs from others from polling firms like PPP and Rasmussen that show a Republican advantage and specific House and Senate polls showing pro-abortion Democrats may lose control of either chamber of Congress.
“That doesn’t sound like a death knell to me," Hoyer insisted, according to a report in The Hill. "That sounds like a party that’s on the move. I not only don’t think there’s a death knell. I think there’s a resurgence of Democrats throughout the country.”
Hoyer ignored the fact that the Gallup, and a new Zogby poll, show significantly more enthusiasm from Republican and independent voters, who say they generally plan to support pro-life Republican candidates, than from Democrats.
Despite the rosy picture Hoyer tries to paint, some Democrats are trying to create distance between themselves and the pro-abortion leaders who run the party in Congress.
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a pro-abortion South Dakota Democrat running in the race of her life against Republican Kristi Noem, is fighting back against Noem’s showing Sandlin linked with pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Sandlin has rebuked her party during her campaign and The Hill indicates she is running a television commercial saying the party is viewing South Dakota as "flyover country."
“They look down from 30,000 feet and don’t care about our agriculture, the Second Amendment or our fiscally conservative values,” Herseth Sandlin says in the ad.
“It is telling that this ad receives it highest ratings from Republicans,” Chris Wilson, a GOP pollster with Wilson Research Strategies, told The Hill. “The ad is designed to remind Republicans who may personally like Herseth Sandlin that she is more like them than like Democratic leaders when it comes to the issues.”
Also, moderate Democrats like Bobby Bright from Alabama and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina are also taking aim at Democratic leaders.
Meanwhile, Democrats are concerned because outside citizens groups that frequently run television commercials supporting or opposing candidates are increasingly backing Republican candidates.
Politico indicates pro-Republican third-party organizations have paid for $23.6 million in television commercials while Democratic-aligned groups had spent just $4.8 million. And in the crucial final month of campaigning, Republicans have $9.4 million worth of ads from supportive groups while Democrats have just $1.3 million from supportive groups.
“It’s frustrating down here because we know if we get our message out, people will agree with us, but when airwaves are flooded like they are, democracy and public debate lose,” Democratic Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello told Politico.
Democrats are coming back with their own ads and many Democratic candidates have more money than their Republican challengers. They will have to hope those ads connect with voters at a time when a pro-life landslide is on the horizon.
Dave Andrusko, of the National Right to Life Committee, says his survey of the political landscape shows "as the mid-term elections rapidly approach, the prospects of Democrats grow progressively dimmer."
"Democrats are fighting not to give in to the pall cast by polls that show the electorate dusting off their brooms to sweep them out of office in large numbers," he writes. "There are umpteen reasons why they may be headed for a thumping. We would argue that, collectively, Democrats are paying a price for being almost monochromatically pro-abortion."
"There is not a single–not ONE– Democrat in the Senate who voted against ObamaCare, and many Democrats in the House who had voted pro-life, self-exiled themselves by voting for ObamaCare," Andrusko continued.
"ObamaCare started the voter exodus out of the Democratic column, a journey which Democrats have been unable to convince people to reverse," he concludes. "In addition, it is hugely important that the United States House and Senate Democratic leadership is pro-abortion, the exact opposite of the Republican leadership."
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