WASHINGTON – With the nation's top conservative leaders and activists desperately seeking a strategy to unify their splintering coalition at this week's CPAC conference in Washington, current polling figures compiled by the Campaign for America's Future show the American public's large and growing rejection of conservative ideology and its failed policies.

--81 percent of Americans favor a federal minimum wage hike. 17 states voted to raise their minimum wage in 2006. ( Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, 01/13/07 - 01/16/07)

--79 percent of adults say Medicare should negotiate with drug companies for lower prices. ( ABC News/Washington Post, 01/16/07 – 01/19/2007)

--82 percent of registered voters believe global warming exists. ( Fox News/Opinion Dynamics, 1/30/07 – 01/31/07 )

--61 percent of adults say Congress should repeal tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies. ( Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, 01/13/07 – 01/16/07 )

--63 percent of adults oppose sending more troops to Iraq. ( Associated Press-Ipsos, 02/12/07 – 02/15/07 )

--68 percent of adults say the U.S. is heading on the wrong track. ( Associated Press-Ipsos, 02/05/07 – 02/07/07 )

--In 1994, 13 percent of Independents voted Republican. In 2006, 15 percent of Independents voted Democratic. ( Mitofsky International Voter Research, New York Times, 11/13/94; CNN 2006 exit polls )

WHAT CONSERVATIVES ARE SAYING

--Rep. Pat Toomey, president of the conservative Club for Growth, says, "Republicans "completely lost its brand as the party of limited government and low spending." [Hallow, The Washington Times, 11/10/2006]

--Tony Perkins, Family Research Council president, says Republicans lost because they forsaken "social values." [Farris, The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy, 11/14/2006]

--David A. Keene, co-chairman of the American Conservative Union, says the Republicans lost because the election was the "least ideological election in modern memory." [The American Conservative Union, 11/13/2006]

--Grover Norquist believes "this election is proof that to win elections, candidates simply must promise to rule as conservatives." [Americans for Tax Reform Press Release, 11/08/2006]

--Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., believes Christian conservatives are "agents of intolerance." [Kirkpatrick, The New York Times, 02/25/07]

--Sen. John McCain believes that President Bush was "very badly served" by Vice President Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. [Politico.com, 02/21/2007] Vice President Cheney countered saying, "I just fundamentally disagree with John." [ABC's Good Morning America, 02-21-2007]

--RNC Chairman Ken Melman says, Republicans lost because of voters who cast ballots against the party in protest of ethical lapses or the war in Iraq. [Cook, The Christian Science Monitor, 11/10/2006]

--Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation believes "There is great anxiety....There is no outstanding conservative, and they [conservatives] are all looking for that." [Kirkpatrick, The New York Times, 02/25/07]

--James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, says Republicans lost the 2006 election because they did not motivate the "value voters". [Hallow, The Washington Times, 11/10/2006]

--Newt Gingrich says, the 2006 election loss was due to "an absence of competence in Republican performance, an absence of candor, corruption and the bad advice of consultants." [Associated Press, 11/10/2006]

--Rep. Bob Bar, R-Ga., says, "the Bush administration was largely the architect of its defeat, and that the party can no longer afford to play by yesterday's playbook." [Hallow, The Washington Times, 11/10/2006]

--Former Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, blames the religious right for the party's loss in the 2006 election. [Ralph Z. Hallow, The Washington Times, 11/10/2006]

--Sen. Arlan Specter, R-Pa., says, Republicans should become "a lot more progressive and a lot less ideological." [Hallow, The Washington Times, 11-10-2006]