Democrat Candidates Running From or Running To Obama? (campaign, Democrats, Republicans)

[LauraC]

The governor of my state is a Democrat and is at the end of his term limit so the following has nothing to do with getting re-elected. He has a higher combined favorable (excellent and good) approval rating from Republicans (77%) than Democrats (75%) although it's close (and high) within the margin of error. Even Independents give him a 72% approval rating.

Obama has a combined approval (good and excellent) rating of 34% in my state.

Tennesseans favor Bredesen more than Obama » Knoxville News Sentinel

Our governor made the national news when he said Obamacare was "the mother of all unfunded mandates" and for this at the National Governors Association this month:

"Gov. Phil Bredesen, the media's go-to Democrat for anti-Obama remarks, was doing it again over the weekend at the White House. This time at a meeting of the National Governors Association, Bredesen castigated the president for taking a principled stand against Arizona's immigration law. 'Universally the governors are saying, ‘We’ve got to talk about jobs,’ Bredesen said. 'And all of a sudden we have immigration going on.'”

Bredesen signed a version of Arizona's law last month.

Bredesen Lectures Obama on Politics and Immigration | Pith in the Wind | Nashville Scene

We have 3 Republicans and 1 Democrat running for Bredesen's governor job. The 3 Republicans have praised the current governor, as has the Democrat, but more telling is the Democrat never mentions Obama. We have no Senate elections this year.

Questions: When your Democrats are campaigning for governor, are they associating themselves with President Obama and his policies, acting like they never heard of him or even worse, not telling people they are Democrats in their ads? How about Democrat candidates for House and Senate seats? Do they mention Obama and/or Pelosi/Reid when campaigning? If not, is it just a campaign tactic to get elected or do they really not agree with the President and the two majoity leaders?

[North Beach Person]

In MD O'Malley is using the President as a positive. Part of that is demographics and part is due to MD receiving more stimulus money than maybe it's population warrants. That money was more available to the local governments (we were being told to submit a project, any project) last year and this than at anytime I've ever seen in the last 25 years.