Resurgent Republic(ans)

A new conservative policy group, formed to fight back against liberal counterparts, doesn’t dispute President Obama’s high approval ratings. But in their first national poll, they think they’ve discovered a key to a Republican resurgence: right-leaning independents.Resurgent Republic, headed by Republican pollster Whit Ayres and former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie, will hold focus groups and national polls to help craft responses to policy proposals considered by the Obama administration and Congress. The group is modeled on Democracy Corps, run by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, which releases its poll results to the public.This morning, on President Obama’s hundredth day in office, the group announced the results of their first national poll. Obama held a 61-percent approval rating. But a series of questions suggested that while voters like their president, they may not agree with his policies.”I have lived long enough to remember three different times when the Republican Party was declared dead and buried,” Ayres said on a conference call this morning. “In every one of those cases, the Republican Party made a comeback.”The survey results suggest how that comeback will happen, he said, by showing how the country remains center-right.The survey asked whether the government should promote opportunity (“by fostering job growth, encouraging entrepreneurs, and allowing people to keep more of what they earn”) or fairness (“by narrowing the gap between rich and poor, spreading the wealth, and making sure that economic outcomes are more equal”). By a 2-to-1 majority, respondents favored opportunity.More important, independents, on that question and a number of others, looked more like Republicans than Democrats.The implication, Ayres said, was that voters this year chose change, not liberalism.”If conservatives will look forward, not backward, we’re optimistic that conservatives will do well,” he said. “We’ll make a comeback and rebuild the majority coalition.”For more analysis from Resurgent Republic, click here.