NY-26: Jon Powers, Former Republican
by Matt at Jul 29th, 2008
Jack Davis certainly couldn’t count on much love from the liberal bloggers of Western New York before, but now that his anti-Jon Powers spoof site has been exposed they are out for blood with a typical “attack the messenger” strategy, right out of the DNC playbook.
The other day it was accusing Davis of copyright infringement and of phishing tactics.
Today’s talking point is that Davis is a former Republican who has donated money to Republicans in the past, and received PAC money during previous campaigns.
Now, hypocrisy from a Democrat is hardly anything new, but it seems kind of strange that they’d want to out Jack Davis as a former Republican, when Jon Powers, by his own admission, is a former Republican as well, according to this interview from July 2007:
Q: Have you always been a Democrat?
A: No. I grew up Republican. I switched when I got back from Iraq because I came home and I looked at who was in charge of this country. At the time, there was one party in charge. It was the party I grew up with but it was not the party I grew up believing in.
I’ve never been political growing up, my parents aren’t political. … I went to war for America. I didn’t go to war for a specific party.
While Jon Powers suggests that he has more divisions with the Republican Party aside from their commitment to fighting and winning the war on terror, his positions on other issues suggest that his political views have only more recently evolved, or perhaps that his leftward shift on the issues has been manufactured for his campaign.
As I reported back in May, Jon Powers has previously described himself as s “fiscally conservative and socially progressive.” Though his campaign rhetoric against free trade and tax cuts prove he can hardly claim to be a fiscal conservative. As for social issues, Powers has in the past ducked questions about his position on abortion, saying that his Irish Catholic background made it an issue he struggled with. It was only after Powers was criticized by NOW for not being pro-abortion and opposing gay marriage that he finally decided to declare his pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage positions.
After all, how else can he attract all that out-of-state left-winger cash?
Jack Davis may be a hypocrite for accepting PAC money one cycle, then criticizing his opponents for accepting PAC money in the next, but if Jack Davis is going to be condemned by the nutroots for being a former Republican, then Jon Powers ought to be condemned by them as well, especially since he’s only as liberal as the talking points he receives on a daily basis.
UPDATE: … apparently they’re all former Republican… via 26th District.
UPDATE: Looks like Buffalo Pundit missed the point…
UPDATE: Alice Kryzan’s campaign responds: “Both Davis & Powers were registered Republicans, both of whom switched after personal experiences while Ms. Kryzan has been a lifelong Democrat.”
