Californians Are Losing Faith in Speaker Pelosi, Why Hasn’t Dennis Cardoza?

Californians Are Losing Faith in Speaker Pelosi, Why Hasn’t Dennis Cardoza?

Nancy Pelosi’s Disapproval Skyrockets 10 points in Just Six Months, but Cardoza Stands by Loyally

Washington- According to new polling, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s approval ratings have sunk to 34 percent. Pelosi’s failed economic policies, a job-killing National Energy Tax, and attempts to steamroll a Democrat takeover of healthcare through Congress certainly have something to do with her lack-luster approval ratings. As Californians’ trust in Pelosi dwindles, why hasn’t Dennis Cardoza’s?

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s popularity is also dipping among Californians. In March, 48 percent of the state’s voters approved of the San Francisco Democrat’s performance, with 35 percent disapproving and 17 percent without an opinion.

“Six months later, just 34 percent of voters approve of Pelosi, while 44 percent disapprove and 22 percent have no opinion, the poll found.” (Ben Goad, “California voters’ support of Congress equals 25-year low,” Press-Enterprise, 10/17/09)

Unlike his constituents, Cardoza stays loyal to his boss Nancy Pelosi and her job-killing tax-and-spend agenda, voting with her 97.6 percent of the time (Washington Post Votes Database, accessed 10/19/09). In fact, Cardoza even supported Nancy Pelosi’s failed stimulus, which cost taxpayers over $1 trillion with little to show for it. In the past year alone, California has lost 741,000 jobs and faces a growing unemployment rate of 12.2 percent:

“California lost more than five times as many jobs in September as it did the month before, signaling that the state’s employment woes continue despite a budding economic recovery.

“Employers cut 39,300 workers from their payrolls last month, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department, led by cuts in construction and government.” (Alana Semuels, “California job losses keep climbing,” Los Angeles Times, 10/17/09)

“Californians are clearly growing tired of Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat lap dog Dennis Cardoza,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Cardoza has blindly followed Pelosi into spending billions of taxpayer dollars at the expense of middle-class families in California. The public has clearly lost faith in Nancy Pelosi’s failed leadership. When will Dennis Cardoza start fighting for his constituents instead of just playing party politics by blindly supporting Nancy Pelosi’s detrimental job-killing policies?”

Cardoza has been portrayed as Pelosi’s right-hand puppet:

“When the House Democratic leadership assembles each week in the Speaker’s Conference Room, Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) is the only lawmaker in the meeting with no official title and no leadership staff. He has no real reason to be there. Except that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants him on hand.

She wanted someone who could keep her tapped into the thinking of the centrists in her caucus. So she turned to Cardoza, a Blue Dog from her home state with a conservative rural district.” (Mike Soraghan, “Cardoza links Pelosi to centrists of caucus,” The Hill, 07/21/09)

It seems playing politics is more important to him than his own constituents:

“Cardoza, a Blue Dog from Pelosi’s home state of California, has emerged as the emissary between the liberal Speaker and the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. And that’s helped Cardoza become what associates say he has wanted to be from his first day in Congress — a consummate inside player.” (Mike Soraghan, “Cardoza links Pelosi to centrists of caucus,” The Hill, 07/21/09)

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