Source: Politics<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s Democratic memo that voters want a return to normalcy hasn\u2019t reached the party\u2019s Senate candidates.<\/p>\n
Even as several blue-state governors dropped mask mandates \u2014 and the chair of the party\u2019s House campaign committee declared on Tuesday it was time to shift their communications on Covid-19 \u2014 Democratic senators and candidates don\u2019t seem to want anything to do with the new messaging.<\/p>\n
Senate Democrats\u2019 reluctance to embrace a return-to-normal message \u2014 one that 70 percent of people support<\/a> \u2014 comes as Republicans continue to seize on the issue. Republican senators and candidates are portraying their Democratic rivals as in lockstep with President Joe Biden, whose administration continues to recommend indoor mask mandates in schools and other public settings.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee declined to comment about the organization\u2019s Covid-19 messaging, a stark contrast with remarks made this week by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney<\/a> (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who said \u201cit\u2019s time to give people their lives back.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue is poised to take on a heightened role in several competitive swing-state Senate races. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto<\/a>, the exception to Senate Democrats\u2019 refusal to talk about rolling back pandemic restrictions, on Thursday said that Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak\u2019s decision to end mask mandates was \u201cthe right call.\u201d She is among the most vulnerable Democrats defending seats this year in a fiercely competitive battleground race.<\/p>\n Adam Laxalt, the Republican frontrunner in the race who had criticized Cortez Masto in recent days for her silence on the issue, tweeted in response to her position that only the \u201cpolitical science\u201d had changed, noting that by the state\u2019s own criteria, Covid-19 transmission is still high in Nevada.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually a pretty easy answer: that it should be an individual\u2019s decision,\u201d Democratic strategist Neil Oxman said of how candidates should answer questions about mask requirements. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the DSCC has sent down to its candidates about polling and what\u2019s the safe thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Even in a Democratic stronghold like Washington state, Republicans see opportunity in the politics of masking, convinced that Americans are ready to get on with life \u2014 beginning with an end to mask mandates. In a contest that some Republicans insist could be competitive in 2022, GOP Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley is zeroing in on Democratic Sen. Patty Murray<\/a> for blocking legislation that would prohibit mask mandates in schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n Murray spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday against a bill by Sen. Tom Cotton<\/a> (R-Ark.) that would withhold federal funding from schools that require children to wear masks, arguing that local authorities should be able to make the decision on school masking. Indoor and school mask requirements remain in effect in the state, though Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee this week lifted an outdoor mask mandate.<\/p>\n In response to a question from POLITICO about whether she supports rolling back additional pandemic restrictions, Murray provided a statement emphasizing the importance of \u201clistening to public health experts in your own state and community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us want to get past this pandemic and while it\u2019s thrown us curveballs every time we turn around, we all know what we need to do, especially if the numbers go up: we need masks, ventilation, and testing so people can make decisions about whether they can to go work or school safely,\u201d Murray said, adding that \u201cas we\u2019re seeing numbers like cases and hospitalizations go down, we can ease some precautions.\u201d<\/p>\n A Crosscut-Elway poll<\/a> released in early January found Murray had only a 3-point lead against a generic Republican opponent, survey data that Sen. Rick Scott<\/a>, (R-Fla.), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has pointed to in recent interviews as a sign of her vulnerability.<\/p>\n Republicans also see promise in Colorado \u2014 where Gov. Jared Polis has drawn national attention in recent months as the leading Democrat calling for an end to emergency pandemic policies, declaring in December that the \u201csilent majority\u201d of vaccinated adults could make their own decisions. Up for reelection in a race that until recently wasn\u2019t viewed as potentially competitive, Sen. Michael Bennet<\/a> (D-Colo.), has sat out of the conservation.<\/p>\n Bennet, who announced in 2020 he \u201cstrongly\u201d supported Polis\u2019 decision to enact a statewide mask mandate, hasn\u2019t publicly backed the governor\u2019s more recent approach. A Bennet spokesperson on Friday said the senator supports \u201cPolis\u2019 efforts to return to normalcy.\u201d<\/p>\n The partisan gap in polling reveals some of the forces driving the Senate Democrats\u2019 reluctance to abandon mask mandates. While a Monmouth University poll released in late January found that 70 percent of Americans overall \u2014 and virtually the same figure among independent voters \u2014 agreed it is time to \u201caccept that COVID is here to stay\u201d and \u201cget on with our lives,\u201d among Democrats, that number was just 47 percent.<\/p>\n Oxman said he doesn\u2019t believe Democrats championing the rollback of restrictions would convert many voters come November. And candidates would run the risk of upsetting the Democratic base, Oxman said, pointing to recent data showing how differently the issue plays with Democratic voters.<\/p>\n \u201cI think because it\u2019s kind of split in some of these places, Democrats might be avoiding it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a lot of Democrats who would think, \u2018Wait a second, what is this guy? Trump?\u2019 I don\u2019t think you stand up there and start screaming about how Fauci is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Zack Roday, a Republican strategist who also works for N2 America, a center-right group targeting suburban voters, said it\u2019s a major misstep for Democrats to ignore public sentiment on pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n In a tough election year for Democrats, Cortez Masto and Sisolak \u2014 who are running in a battleground state \u2014 were \u201csavvy\u201d to take the positions that they did this week, Roday said.<\/p>\n The firm earlier this month released an ad that showed children watching a packed football game and a red carpet event on television, contrasted with students sitting spaced apart and masked in classrooms and waiting in line to have their temperatures taken. The group made a small ad buy last week to run the spot in a handful of television markets during The View, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and the Olympic games.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the most defining issue of the last several years, and you\u2019re speaking to your base and only your base,\u201d Roday said of Democrats\u2019 messaging on restrictive Covid-19 policies. \u201cK-12 parents, combined with the center of the electorate, are only getting spoken to by one political party. It makes for a really bad recipe for Democrats trying to hold the Senate, House, statehouses and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n