2011 will be remembered as the year of the “Bully” Governors, who declared war on public service employees, and took away long held union collective bargaining rights, and promoted disrespect and lack of appreciation of the role that police, firefighters, nurses, teachers and others have in our lives every day.
But now, public opinion polls demonstrate a rising public reaction against these governors, with all looking at statistics that make it clear that were they to face the voters just months after being elected, they would be soundly defeated!
Scott Walker of Wisconsin has only a 43 percent rating, while the “dean” of the “Bully” Governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has been in office one year longer and has had people in his party clamoring him to run for President, has only 40 percent behind him.
Meanwhile, John Kasich of Ohio is down to 33 percent, and Rick Scott of Florida is at the lowest with 29 percent in favor of his performance, as compared to 57 percent against!
And, as reported earlier, Christie was ordered by a state Supreme Court decision to provide an additional $500 million for funding of poor school districts.
Meanwhile, Walker’s anti union legislation has been declared unconstitutional by a state judge!
There is definite “buyer’s remorse” by voters who either failed to vote in many of these state elections, or did not realize what they were doing when they did vote.
And a state representative in Alabama, outraged over the attack on teachers and public education, has switched from the Republicans to the Democrats in protest of what has happened. And in Jacksonville, Florida, usually a Republican city, a Democrat was elected mayor for the first time in 20 years, along with a Democrat winning in a special legislative election in New Hampshire for an open seat. All this comes at the same time that a Democrat was elected in a NY 26 special House election, as reported earlier.
So the tide is turning, and it gives the Democrats hope of winning back the House of Representatives in 2012, needing only 24 seats to win control!
Another example of the grass always being greener on the other side. While Republicans have railed against Democrats, and their ideas of ‘big government’, they have not proven to be tactful in their efforts to dismantle social programs and services that many citizens don’t want eliminated. At this point, the electoral honeymoon is over for Walker, Christie, Kasich, and Scott; and now they are being judged on their own effectiveness. Aside from Christie, I don’t think any of the aforementioned names are being drafted into the nomination race. Some haven’t even been in office two years yet, but in politics, capital can run out quickly.