William G. Milliken (Governor of Michigan): “The party has abandoned the middle to take on socially divisive issues. This president has pursued policies pandering to the extreme right wing across a wide variety of issues and has exacerbated the polarization and the strident, uncivil tone of much of what passes for political discourse in this country today.”
Elmer R. Andersen (Governor of Minnesota): “Republicans of my era used to have a humane and reasonable agenda. Today, as taxes for the wealthy are being cut, jobs are being outsourced if not lost and children are left medically uninsured, the Bush Administration is running up the biggest deficit in U.S. history– bound to be a terrible burden for future generations.”
David Cargo (Governor of New Mexico): “The party has been ‘kidnapped’ by conservatives. Its right-wing image is hurting the party electorally, particularly among suburbanites, women and minorities.”
Dan Evans (Governor of Washington): “There are a whole host of areas where the Bush Administration has gotten too harsh, too partisan, too unwilling to reach across the aisle to get good answers to tough problems.”
A. Linwood Holton (Governor of Virginia): “The problem lies with the extremist element that controls the Republican Party, which has polarized the country.”
Walter R. Peterson (Governor of New Hampshire): “We have let the Republican Party go too far to the right, so we risk losing much of the position we have with the American people. You go too far and the voters revolt.”