Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's victory marks a costly blow to organized labor that could weaken its political muscle over the long term.RTWT.
Governors and legislators in Republican-led states across the country could be emboldened to pursue the same type of curbs on union-worker rights that Mr. Walker installed, and to move forward on right-to-work legislation, which would bar contracts requiring employees in private-sector firms to be union members and pay union dues. In Wisconsin, the change has significantly reduced public-employee union membership since last year.
The shift could hit union membership across the country and weaken labor's ability to raise money that is a significant source of Democratic political funding.
The political-action committees of public-sector unions have donated $4.7 million to candidates for Congress so far in the 2012 election, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. That made public-sector unions one of the biggest sources of donations to candidates behind Hollywood, Wall Street and the insurance industry, according to the center.
About 90% of the donations from the public-sector PACs went to Democrats.
The three largest public-sector union PACs have so far raised $23.4 million in this election cycle. That money can be used to donate directly to candidates or pay for television advertisements, mailings or other election activities.
Republicans control legislatures and governorships in 24 states, making them the most likely to pursue curbs to union-worker rights and benefits if they haven't already, according to Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative anti-tax group.
And watch that video above carefully.
I was watching MSNBC last night and I tweeted, with some surprise, the network's early call for Scott Walker. Rachel Maddow handled the news quite professionally. She just reported it without getting too hot and bothered. But boy did Ed Schultz have a hard time with the news. You can see him go through a couple of stages of grief right there in those few minutes. First he was denying it, looking a little depressed. But as he kept talking he started to accept the results and then got combative about what progressives need to do in November. And I mentioned it earlier, but the left is going to blame this on the money. You'll be hearing all week reports about how much money big out-of-state donors sent to Wisconsin. And while it was a 7-1 advantage for Walker over Barrett, less than three percent of voters decided at the last minute. Indeed, about 90 percent of voters were fully committed to their vote weeks ago. What mattered most was the ground game. CNN's Dana Bash reported last night from Walker's victory headquarters and she said that in all of her reporting she'd never seen a more enthusiastic victory crowd --- and that was after reporting on the GOP primaries all year long! Enthusiasm made the difference, and obviously a lot of Wisconsinites are pleased with Walker's record on government.
It's going to be interesting to watch how the left spins this out. One thing I can tell you, though, Baracky was smart to stay away from the Badger State. What a disaster for the left.
I'll have more later...
0 comments:
Post a Comment