Why Republican Rhetoric Did Not Work

Every year the republicans trot out an ill-conceived issue to run on. This year was re-assessment and in the final month drivers licences for illegals.
I took a sample of past election results of 2003 the last off-year election. In 2003 there was a county-wide candidate for the Assessors race and that brought voters out. Four years later with no county-wide race, both Democratic and republican candidates saw some big drop-offs in numbers. The Nassau GOP can't say that any of thier issues impacted the races because in some cases the republican drop-off was greater than Democrats. In the end, the percentages were pretty much the same from 4 years ago.
3^{rd LD}- 2003
Ciotti (R) …….5604
DeAngelis (D)…….4430
2007
Ciotti (R).......5,337
Mirza (D).......3,967

Ciotti Down 267
Democrat Down 463

8^{th LD} - 2003
Muscarella …….8449
DeFelice (D)…….3127
2007
Muscarella (R).......7,633
Uhl (D).......2,347

Muscarella Down 816
Democrat Down 780

^{9th LD - 2003}
Nicollelo (R)…….8494
Tamares (D)…….3822
2007
Nicolello (R).......6,974
Sokol (D).......2,870

Nicolello down 1520
Democrat down 952

12^th LD - 2003
Schmitt (R).......9241
Rennhack (D).......3754
2007
Schmitt (R).......8,783
Rennhack (D).......2,712

Schmitt down 458
Democrat down 1042

13^{th LD -2003}
Gonsalves (R)....... 7613
Zimmerman (D).......5075
2007
Gonsalves (R).......6,979
Rossi (D)......3,656

Gonsalves down 634
Democrat down 1419

15^th LD - 2003
Dunne (R)……7749
Clark (D)…….3614
2007
Dunne (R).......7,295
Clark (D).......2,841

Dunne down 454
Democrat down 773

16^th LD - 2003
Jacobs (D).......9550
Doyle (R).......4464
2007
Jacobs (D).......7,267
Girardi (R).......4,340

Jacobs down 2283
Republican down 124

17^th LD - 2003
Mangano (R)....... 8348
Burns-Gleason (D)....... 3789
2007
Mangano (R).......7,352
Guarglia (D).......2,403

Mangano down 996
Democrat down 1386