A clear indicator of the growing peril faced by Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner following the failure of the GOP-dominated federal government to repeal the Affordable Care Act has been a swift decline in Gardner’s in-state approval rating as measured in consecutive polls. Back in March, Gardner recorded a lackluster 39% approval in a poll done by Keating Research. By early July, Public Policy Polling found Gardner at a dismal 27% approval. And here are the latest PPP numbers one month later:
The last two surveys from PPP have shown President Donald Trump’s approval in Colorado holding steady at 40%. But since July’s poll, Sen. Cory Gardner has slipped a further three points to only a 24% approval rating among Colorado voters. Like we said last month, the huge spread between Trump’s approval and Gardner’s–not to mention how far underwater Gardner is in these surveys–is evidence that Gardner has lost support from liberal and conservative Colorado voters alike. Evident in these numbers is the failure of Gardner’s attempts to appease both sides in the debate over health care, railing against Obamacare out of one side of his mouth while making empty promises to protect popular features of the law out of the other.
Even during tough political times, most politicians find a floor in their support; usually at or near the overall percentage of partisan and like-minded independent voters. If these numbers are accurate, Gardner has fallen right through that floor into the abyss of having no friends on either side of the aisle. That can only happen when one’s perceived dishonesty overtakes any difference of opinion about a given issue among the voters.
That’s where Gardner finds himself today. It doesn’t matter what he says, because no one trusts him.
And we don’t even know how you begin fixing that.
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Woof! The Worm's worm turns. It won't be long now.
I sense a strong and compelling need for corrupt Con Man Cory to “spend more time with his family” in the very near future…
"Not everything Cory Gardner does is evil".
Cue Moldy to tell is he will make an epic comeback and cruise in 2020.
Btw, Pols, the angry-faced Cory would be appropriate for this post.
These numbers mean nothing. The election is over three years away.
Why don't you focus on 2018, Pols? Are you being paid to focus on Gardner exclusively?
These numbers mean nothing. He'll always have Fluffy, and he's unanimous in that!!!
Fluffy's nose is looking really brown these days.
Moldy, my predictable fool. You just couldn't resist jumping on a Gardner thread like a Pavlov's Dog.
Yeah. Let's ignore Gardner even though he shows every day that he doesn't represent Colorado. He represents the Koch Brothers. This poll shows that people are not sick of the protests. But they are sick of Gardner.
You're correct, these numbers don't represent what the political landscape may be for Mr. Gardner in 2020 but they do represent a very deep hole that Mr. Gardner has dug for himself. He has inflicted severe political wounds on himself by blindly ignoring his constituents and their views on health care which is a very basic issue for most voters.
Putting the specific issue aside, by following his desire to remain faithful to the extreme right-wing Republicans, no doubt to avoid a heavily funded primary in 2020, he consciously calculated that he could ignore his constituents. By doing that, he not only told us he doesn't care what we think but he compounded his political misfortune by refusing to talk to us. Public disdain for his constituents coupled with hiding from us leaves the impression of someone who takes us for fools. That impression about Mr. Gardner will last long after health care fades from the public's mind and its one he will be trying to overcome for the remainder of his political career.
If he is smart, he will publicly apologize and begin hosting town hall meetings across the state.
He apparently remembers the Rule of Holes……
If you wish to get out of a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging deeper.
Dropping the charges against the folks in the wheelchairs was a smart start.
Like everything else this millenium, Republicans have been playing "holes" by their own rule book . . .
. . . Rule Numbet 1. We'll make more.
His numbers are marginally worse than Trump's. That says something.
Maybe with Trump's coat-tails in Colorado, Gardner won't lose by quite as much.
Who knew that Public Policy Polling, PPP was an international organization.
Cory has had an amazing career, nice-guying his way from an appointed legislative seat to the Senate in a race dems had to work overtime to lose. These numbers should scare him. But without going to fluffy-style boosterism, I wouldn't count him out just yet. Three years is a lifetime in politics and democrats have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory before.
It's too bad they didn't pair him against Hick or Perlmutter. Running against an unidentified generic Dem doesn't tell much. Except he still trails by 5%.
But a generic dem has no enemies. Again, don't open the victory champagne just yet. It could go flat by 2020.
Cory Gardner snubbed some young Latinas in Yuma today. They had marched in the Yuma County parade, with signs promoting DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals), which was a rule Obama put in place to allow undocumented youth to be able to stay, work, and go to college in their adopted country.
So Bennet came and talked with "Las Estrellas" as they call themselves. Cory Gardner, who had ridden a tractor in the parade, came over, looked at their signs, then walked and drove away, even though they were trying to converse with him.
Way to alienate the future voters, Senator.
I posted about this on the other Bennet / Gardner thread, as well.
Could he get any dumber or more tone-deaf? Astounding.
The Dreamers marching in Yuma may have even influenced Gardner's decision to finally have town halls. He tried to hide out in the Yuma parade, rolling through town in a sealed-cab tractor with his kid. Then he walked away when people with the "Dreamers" wanted to ask him questions.
Gardner took no questions from anyone, and it was left up to the Democratic Senator Bennet to address the County Fair. Here's video of that, btw, courtesy of Craig Stevens: (Bennet's talk about DACA is at around the 8:00 minute mark)
So if Cory Gardner can't even hide from the tough questions of constituents in Yuma, his home town, maybe it's time to stop hiding.
But Gardner's tough talk on North Korea is going to make all the difference, right?
Wonder if he is helping to advise the Trump Sad!-ministration on what their stance and rhetoric should be.
When North Korea says you lack judgement and body hair, you know they say it from a place of fear.
+10 for the nameless one.