The media meme this past year regarding Mike Pence is pretty simple to sum up. Pence signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton two decades earlier with unanimous support and subsequently enacted by about two-thirds of the states. Only people who hate gays support RFRA. Ergo, Pence hates gays. Pence has become unpopular because he signed RFRA into law because of his supposed hatred of gays and will probably lose re-election next year. Doubt me? This is how WISH-TV's Jim Shella
describes new poll results about Pence and what it means for his re-election bid next year:
Mike Pence started 2015 on a high. Amid speculation that he might run for President, he focused on matters close to home.
But one of the things he focused on backfired: the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA.
The governor signed it surrounded by the three biggest opponents of gay marriage in Indiana.
Critics called the law a license to discriminate and the governor stumbled badly in an effort to defend it on national television.
The result is a relatively low approval rating in the Hoosier Survey.
It shows that just 47 percent of the people in Indiana like his performance. Thirty five percent disapprove of the job being done by Mike Pence.
“And this is where RFRA — and some of the other issues that we’ve also polled on — show that Pence really got hurt,” said Ball State political science professor Ray Scheele.
What Pence or the rest of the Indiana media won't tell you is that media polls taken a year prior to the November 2008 election when Mitch Daniels was re-elected by a landslide over Democrat Jill Long Thompson similarly showed him with a very low approval rating and losing in match-ups against potential Democratic candidates, including Jill Long Thompson. Here's an
Advance Indiana post from December 2007 on Daniels' approval rating:
A recent Indianapolis Star poll suggested Gov. Mitch Daniels' re-election chances weren't too good as we enter next year's election season. That poll showed him with a high unfavorability rating and losing to Democratic challengers. A new poll conducted on behalf of the Republican Governors Association, however, paints a starkly different outlook for Daniels. A Bellweather Research & Consulting poll conducted Dec. 10-15 shows Daniels with a positive job approval rating of 51% and a double-digit lead over his two, potential Democratic candidates, Jill Long Thompson and Jim Schellinger.
According to the poll, voters approve of Daniels' performance as governor by a 51-41% margin. In a match-up against Jill Long Thompson, Daniels beats her 46-33%. He beats Jim Schellinger by a slightly larger margin of 46-31%. A press release from the RGA claims Bellweather has accurately polled Indiana gubernatorial campaigns for several election cycles. The press release suggests the Indianapolis Star poll over-sampled Democrats by 2%. The RGA poll over-samples Republicans 36-24%, which the pollster claims is in line with other public polls and trends since 2000.
So in December 2007, voters approved of Daniels' performance by a 51-41% margin. In the poll cited by Shella, 47% of voters approve of Pence's performance and 35% disapprove of his job performance. In other words, Pence is in no better or worse shape than Daniels was one year before his re-election. Got that, Jim?
12 comments:
The incredible hatred of people who claim to be tolerant is quite remarkable. They project this hatred and assume that others hate as they do. In fact, I suspect their obsession with tolerance comes from the very fact that they themselves are not tolerant and therefore assume that nobody else is as well. Pence is simply roadkill to people who think like this.
The great tragedy, for them if not for the rest of us, is that such hatred tends to destroy the carrier. The LGBT movement is its own worst enemy. It's like watching a train wreck unfold. Amazingly, very few of them see it. Some of my gay friends do and they are terrified. This is what happens when you place your movement in the hands of mental midgets.
I read an interesting piece on Monica Boyer's blog noting how Indiana ranks high in all business ratings and that RFRA doesn't seem to matter.
http://monicaboyer.com/how-can-this-be-indiana-best-business-state-in-america/
I also note how the NFL told the complainers in Houston to move along; the Super Bowl isn't getting cancelled. The NCAA is whining about the Houston referendum, threatening to cancel future Final Fours there.
I think I'll tour the NCAA headquarters and see how far I get trying to use the women's restroom.
I'm with Mike Huckabee in that I'm going to be whatever level of gender confused is necessary so that I can shower with the cheerleading squad.
The lesbian mayor of Houston is an example of taking "equality" too far for two-thirds of that city's voters, who voted to repeal their local human rights ordinance because the mayor was using it to go after the speech spoken by Christian ministers to their parishioners at church. This mayor is an embarrassment to the LGBT community, but its leaders are defending her outrageous intolerance towards the exercise of other people's free speech rights every step of the way.
Anon 8:22 is as accurate as Gary Welsh is always accurate on this issue. I am not at all a Mike Pence fan; I will never vote for this establishment "R" ever again although the phony RFRA issue is not at all the reason for my distaste with Mike Pence. And that's what Freedom Indiana and the "Pence Must Go" people are all about... advancing a phony issue to push a cause. "Isolate a target and then destroy that target non-stop." Pence and his BFF Jeff Cardwell are typical establishment Republicans who do not understand how to fight extremist left of center liberal Democrats.
The guy leading this total Saul Alinsky-style assault in Mr. Pence should first look in his own closet. What I can tell you from personal knowledge is that you will find an intolerant bigot so full of acrimony and hatred against even his own community members who do not agree with him that you might not even believe he is the same guy his persona alleges to be. He is using Mike Pence, a man who is easy, low hanging fruit- a politician so wooden and cold and without all a deep love from "the people"- to bash and thus to create what I believe is this leader's campaign of hatred to his own political advantage. There is more to this story but for now I've put forth enough.
These left liberals are typical in that the truth does not matter at all. It is their means to an end, their ideology, their single minded "you are either with us or completely against us" mentality. It is so sad. And it hurts the overall cause. Sadder still are that people actually are following this pied piper.
As for Jim Shella... the guy is an industry joke and has been for years. If there is anyone the failing Channel 8 should have let go... it is this hack Shella.
good leaders make strong plausible arguments for the things they decide to do, mostly in advance of doing a given thing, and almost always get themselves on the front of the bus that's already moving. Daniels was very good on all three, and mostly avoided dealing with issues that honestly weren't problems to average citizens. Pence hasn't been.
This is funny. We've been hearing whispers of how Pence was polling in the low 30s and or high 20s and now the actual numbers come out if anything Pence's numbers have improved since June.
Being at 47% is not good for any incumbent, but since John Gregg is tacking to the left on social issues ( in order to avoid a primary from the "Pence must Go" crowd) this gives Pence some maneuvering.
What is more we just saw Coal Country completely reject Democrats due to Obama.
At this point Gregg will outperform his 2012 numbers in Marion County, but he'll underperform in the Wabash R. and Ohio R. Vallies, without Which Gregg can't be Governor.
(Romney won that part of the State which gave him his 54% victory, Donnelly also won, and Gregg did even better then Donnelly, which is the reason the race was close)
The corporate community isn't laughing about rfra, and the list of major corporations and universities asking Pence to support non-discrimination protections is substantial. He ignores these movers and shakers at his own expense. Mike Pence was once the 4th ranking Republican in the House. He's no fool. He will determine whether he can buck the State's major corporations and still keep his job. If he has the votes he'll back the Christians and throw non-discrimination under the bus. If he's worried, he'll cross party lines and get something done. Mike Pence doesn't believe in advancing any gay protections. Period. Not on his agenda. If it happens it will be because he can't risk the downside. John Gregg is perfectly palatable as a Governor to a lot of people, and already the corporate community is moving his way. My bet is that Pence will fall in lock step with the conservatives, and it will cost him the election.
11:22, you dumb***, see the article posted at 8:36.
The radical left just pretends facts don't exist.
Pence is a complete moron who should lose his office because of his own stupidity! Why they felt a need to pull this crap on Pence over the whole RFRA non issue is a mystery to many. But at least the RFRA blowup has shown that the Libertarian Party is especially in Indiana no longer a group of dedicated constitutionalist. But they are in the pocket of the Bipartisan Establishment!
So Gary what's that I heard about today from the "radical Jews" or "reformed Jews" or something of that nature who "unanimously approved" a measure to strip gender identity from education texts and so on - so for example all documents will be written in a gender neutral format, textbooks will be gender neutral, and of course with Houston repealing the ordinance the reporter mentioned that "universal restrooms" will become the norm with this organization.
Anon 11:22: "Movers & shakers" are markets, punishing Cummins for its inattention to core business, resulting in layoffs of 2000 employees. Social venturing, engineering or experimentation with shareholder dollars is misappropriation of same.
RFRA was proven to be nothing more than anti-gay legislation when Gov. Pence proudly posed with it's backers at the signing.
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