What is Jessica Gomez doing in the party of Donald Trump?

Her friends seem to hope she is changing it.

GOP Voters have turned their party over to Trump.  They may complain about his tweeting, and they ignore the p----y grabbing and payoffs to porn stars, but they fall in line.  Trump leads the party.

This blog received multiple comments denying the notion that Trump represents the tone of the party.  What is the truth?  There is data available.

The Gallup Presidential Approval Poll this week shows him at 85% among likely Republican voters, up from 81% in early January, down from 90% in early February. Among all voters Trump is widely unpopular, but Republican voters say they like what they see and hear from Trump.  See for yourself. Click here.

Trump thanking Walden for cutting health care.

Another way to gage support is whether incumbent Republican officeholders dare to disagree with him or put a check on his actions. They do not. 

In the privacy of their inner thoughts they may not like him but publicly, where it counts, they play along.   Out of 51 GOP US Senators only two--Bob Corker and Jeff Flake--are openly critical of Trump, and both are leaving the Senate early, realizing they would lose primary elections in their states.  Among Republican officeholders, opposing Trump is suicide.

Our own Greg Walden, who presents himself in the District as a mild-mannered moderate, is in near perfect lockstep with Trump.  Walden votes with Trump 98.5% percent of the time, at a level even more frequently than the political cast of his District would imply. Walden crossed Trump only in one instance, voting to put sanctions on Russia for interfering in the election, which Trump opposed.

A rule of thumb is that if it were a political necessity--or in the political interests--of an officeholder to oppose the leader of their party they would do so.  They aren't.  Their voters like Trump so they follow Trump.  

See for yourself. Walden Scorecard. Click Here

The Trump approach has been politically successful for the GOP.  They control every branch of government.  They have a dedicated media outlet, Fox News, with dedicated viewers. They have story: the left, with its over-educated urban types who favor multicultural diversity, bend over backwards to accommodate feminism and environmentalism and affirmative action, and they are in cahoots with the universities and the mainstream media, to water down and destroy the "real" America of good, old-fashioned, Christian, proudly-patriotic, white folks, the people who used to be secure and on top and who are now struggling and carrying the burden of slackers and newcomers.  

And they have a tone: we are angry and resentful over it, and darned tired of feeling disrespected.

A different kind of Republican. Jessica Gomez's friends and political allies are bombarding me with a different message: that Trump/Fox message is not the real Republican party, or at least not the whole party. The GOP isn't the party of Trump, they say,  of the NRA, nor of primarily evangelicals, nor of white nationalists, nor against women.

Others wrote to say her tone is that of the real Republican Party.  They say her introductory video isn't just "mere platitudes"; they are the true things Republicans believe.  Republicans want community, not division. 

The Republican incumbent State Representative currently representing half of the Senate District is standard-issue current Republican voting and talking points in this era of Trump. He has been re-elected multiple times. He hates what Trump hates. He opposes taxes, attacks public employee unions, opposes drivers licenses and tuition subsidies for the undocumented, and opposed the popular tax to enable federal matching funds to expand health care for the working poor in Oregon. 

In District:  warm words of empathy and community.

Gomez is presenting herself as the opposite of that. Maybe it is time for the pendulum to swing back toward a Republican party of Mark Hatfield, Bob Packwood, and John Dellenback.

Policy and tone are related, but different, and it would be one way for Gomez to thread that needle of being Republican enough to satisfy her party, yet unthreatening enough to get Democratic and Independent votes.

It is deceptive but it works for Walden. His formula: look and sound and talk like an easygoing empathetic moderate in the District, but vote like Trump when at the Capitol. He seems so nice voters cannot quite believe he votes even more conservatively than Ted Cruz. See for yourself. Click.