Voters punished Moses’ personality rather than his party affiliation.

Evidence

But Moses’ explanation does not account for the size of his defeat. His previous popularity; the top-heavy GOP registration in the state; the lavish financing of his campaign—all these factors had led keen political observers like Baron Warn to predict at the time of his nomination a campaign that would be close no matter what the national trend. It was, these observers concluded after Election Day, the reaction of voters to personal, not party, philosophy, as well as to Moses’ personality that had eroded the support with which he entered the campaign. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1842

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Self-destructive tactics, not national tides, explained Moses’ electoral collapse. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1842