The Revolving Door of Unaffiliated Voters

Bob Stefanowski is trying hard to pull Democrat moderates away from Ned Lamont. He’s offering some tantalizing deals: keeping the abortion laws in place, the strict gun laws in place, voicing support for LGBTQ+ without calling out the sex ed curriculums, and sticking to “An Affordable CT” mantra.

Over the last 30 years, the Republican party in CT has offered the same plea to Constitutional conservatives: we need to vote for a candidate that can win, and that includes winning the unaffiliated voters. The CT GOP has long believed that by attracting unaffiliated votes, the scales will be tipped in their favor, notwithstanding any soaking wet ballots showing up at the last minute to eke out a win for [rhymes with “Shlamont”].

It’s no secret the Republican party has been split into 2 generalized camps: one that’s happy to go along to get along, cause no division, and vote in (more or less) lockstep with the GOP’s endorsed candidate. The other camp may still vote for the endorsed candidate, but they insist on rights and principles; they are much less willing — especially after Covid — to “settle” on someone who doesn’t emphasize the Constitution or individual rights.

In the past, these Constitutional conservatives have been accused of causing division, of splitting the vote and sabotaging the Republican party.

And what eventually happens, after 5-10 years of the Accuse-and-Lose cycle is, the Constitutionals either a) move out of CT, b) don’t vote anymore, or c) register as unaffiliated or third party.

Over the past 30 years or so, the CT GOP can’t seem to help itself. State Central winds up creating the very swath of people they are trying to attract. Constitutional-to-unaffiliated voters aren’t causing division – they’re exposing it.

While some of the Unaffiliated will join, and have an R beside their name, how many of the Unaffiliated are former Republicans who got sick of being blamed for party losses, and felt powerless to boot with the strong-arm tactics from behind closed doors?? (another worm can. Later.)

The CT GOP’s strategy of ignoring or dancing around the social issues, sticking with chamber-of-commerce talking points of yesteryear, is not nearly enough to resonate with 2022 voters: who have experienced 2 years of a manufactured crisis, watched their businesses go down the toilet, saw their kids trying on a gender, and witnessing their bureaucratic school boards brazenly advance agendas to both rewrite history and rewire their children’s minds, especially with sexuality.

Money in our pockets won’t make mandates disappear, protect us from street crime, nor prevent election fraud. It won’t curb inflation, stop the climate agenda, or stop the non-profits behind the Silicon Startups bent on implementing digital IDs and health passports.

Sadly, “an affordable Connecticut” isn’t even close to stopping the Unaffiliated revolving door