Answer 1: Ain't a dime's difference...
Answer 2: Same people voting for different pigs.
In the end, people want something from government and they don't care who delivers it. NY's Bravest may have booed Hitlery at the Garden, but when she's dishing out dough for more equipment and prattling on about the RATS' newest constituency, the so-called First Responders, they're applauding her.
You can make all the distinctions in the world between equipment for firemen and grapefruit interaction research, but the people who benefit in an individual locality will tell you how vital it is for them to have their place at the trough, no matter what slop is in the trough. Until they stop believing that, nothing is really going to change.