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Pollster Newhouse says its a good year for Republicans

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Sussex County Republicans say Americans who oppose national healthcare reform are primed to vote Democrats out of office in November.

Nationally recognized pollster Neil Newhouse says President Barack Obama's popularity is sinking and the upcoming mid-term election could propel more GOP members to Washington and the state house.

About 100 Republicans gathered in Re-hoboth Beach Monday, March 22, for the annual Lincoln Day Dinner, hosted by the Eastern Sussex Republican Club and the Sussex County Republican Women's Club.

A President Abraham Lincoln impersonator added levity to a meeting that otherwise focused on the resurgence of the Repub lican Party.

Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Ross said, "I think the General Assembly might be up for grabs, but Speaker Gilligan might not like for me to say that"

Michelle Rollins, an upstate attorney and widow of multimillionaire John Rollins Sr., has joined a handful of other Republicans considering a run for the US. House of Representatives.

Rollins announced in early March that she is considering a run for the seat, which appears to be magnetizing many in the GOP.

At press time, Rollins had not yet filed for office, but Eastern Sussex Republican Club President Maria Evans said Rollins is "99.9 percent sure."

Delaware Economic Development Office Director Alan Levin introduced Newhouse, of Public Opinion Strategies, who said a March 14 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicates an increasingly frustrated voter base.

In June 2009, 43 percent of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, but by mid-March, dissatisfied Americans increased to 59 percent

Newhouse was a pollster in the campaign for Republican Scott Brown, who was elected to the Senate in Massachusetts, a long-held Democratic state. Brown was also hired by Levin, who considered a run for the governor's seat in 2008.

"This is the single best year for Republicans since 1994," said Newhouse. He also said Obama began his second year in office with the second-lowest approval rating of any modern-day president

Newhouse said the same polls showed that 59 percent of Americans say the government is doing too much.

"The majority now believes their representative in Congress does not deserve re-election," he said.

Similar NBC polling indicates that 57 percent of Americans don't approve of the way Obama is handling healthcare reform. A week before the sweeping overhaul was passed, 48 percent of Americans said Obama's plan was a bad idea, citing the plan is too big to do at once and that it would add to the federal deficit

Rep. Mike Castle, broadcasting from Washington, D.C., said even though 219 House members voted in favor of healthcare reform, 34 Democrats opposed it

"We missed opportunities to bring down state barriers and create interstate competition," he said.

Passing healthcare reform, said New-house, could provide a catalyst for Republicans to take over Democratically held seats both in Delaware and D.C.

"This is not a status quo election, this is a change election," he said.





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