Republican state politicians and the death penalty

[Liberté]

You're very astute for recognizing this dichotomy. It stems from the basic differentials in perspective a national level candidate has to approach politics from and how they contrast with those of local-level candidates. A national Republican has to consider his position in relation to Federal issues; to him, he has to "stand for something" that Republicans, and voters generally, across the nation can sink their proverbial teeth into. And so it's only natural that he would adopt a viewpoint that local and State-level officials might balk at. And the opposite is true as well: a local-level politician, and especially a Republican on that level, has more leeway to hook his ideological approach into opposition to the death penalty.