Political Hay
Checking In
Bob McDonnell showed the way for Republicans to run against unpopular liberal legislation like card check.
Republican candidates who run as unapologetic conservatives opposed to forced unionization, higher energy taxes, and government run healthcare in 2010 could position their party for mid-term electoral gains that exceed the historical average.
Although President Obama maintained strong personal approval ratings for much of his first year in office, public support for his top legislative items evaporated quickly. In a telling sign, independent voters sided with Republican gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey this year by sizable margins — 65 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
Ben Dworkin, a political science professor with Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., attributed the Republican win in his state to internal dynamics unrelated to national issues in his post-election analysis. Christie benefited by running against an unpopular incumbent and by addressing affordability concerns, the Rider professor concluded.
By contrast, McDonnell repeatedly invoked the specter of financially burdensome legislation moving at the national level to keep his Democratic opponent on the defensive in Virginia, with card check near the top of the list.
Republican strategists who are ambitious to nationalize the upcoming congressional races would do well to emulate the tactics McDonnell used in his race against Creigh Deeds, a state senator who had defeated former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe in their party’s primary.
Deeds trailed McDonnell right from the start and attempted to close the gap by seizing upon a 1989 thesis the Republican candidate wrote for Regent University, a Virginia Beach-based Christian institution founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.
Charles Dunn, dean of Regent University’s School of Government, said in an interview that the incessant attacks on McDonnell’s thesis may have ultimately hurt Deeds with his own constituents.
“He [McDonnell] did not run against his record and this is a huge plus,” Dunn said. “When you have candidates who start running against their past they have a credibility problem. McDonnell did not need to emphasize social issues in the campaign because he already had this constituency and was free to focus on economic concerns.”
Dunn also suggested that Deeds may have deflated support for himself in his own precincts because he comes from a conservative part of Virginia where the commercials attacking the Regent thesis may have actually boosted McDonnell’s esteem among those voters.
Instead of playing defense, McDonnell campaigned without apology as both a social and economic conservative committed to protecting Virginia’s interests against federal encroachment. By focusing attention on the many economically unsound aspects of President Obama’s agenda, McDonnell greatly complicated his opponent’s campaign.
The card check and binding arbitration provisions of the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA) would add additional costs and new burdens to business owners who are already operating in a recessionary climate, McDonnell pointed out in his pitch to voters.
Opinion polls show the public is attuned to the anti-democratic elements of card check and ardently favor maintaining the secret ballot in union organization elections. But it is also vitally important to emphasize the impact binding arbitration could have on business owners and the economy at large, McDonnell explained in an interview.
“I think binding arbitration is actually the most egregious part of EFCA,” he said. “Allowing a federal arbitrator to come in and basically write a contract between labor and management if an agreement cannot be reached after 120 days is a horrible policy. This will put a terrific burden on business to cave into any number of demands. Binding arbitration is yet another example of an over burdensome federal government that wants to get involved in micromanaging the free enterprise system. It would hurt our competitiveness in Virginia.”
In the 2008 election cycle, labor union political action committees (PACS) contributed over $66 million dollars to congressional candidates with 92 percent of those contributions going to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org. Card check and binding arbitration remain top priorities for labor bosses who are expecting some form of payback for their contributions.
Looking ahead to the midterm elections, Colin Reed, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), expects anti-free market legislation, such as card check, to figure prominently into campaigns targeting vulnerable Democrats.
About the Author
Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with free market think tanks associated with the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. He has also written for the Daily Caller, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, NetRightDaily.com and NewsBusters.
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Pingback| 1.8.10 @ 6:14AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Checking In [spectator.org] on Topsy links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
NJfreeman| 1.8.10 @ 8:52AM
Now all we have to do in New Jersey is find conservative candidates to replace the country club Republicans. Carry on Steve Lonegan.
Margie| 1.8.10 @ 2:03PM
Agreed on Steve Lonagan, a true conservative. We need more like him. And 3 cheers to the NJ legislature for defeating the Gay Marriage Bill.
Richard Baker| 1.8.10 @ 7:19PM
As a Virginian, I am proud of Governor McDonnell's run for office and for the Old Dominion for electing him. The RNC could take lessons but won't.
arlene | 1.8.10 @ 10:29PM
I am proud of Governor McDonnell's run ,Lida DaiDaihua zi xiu tang
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Carolynn| 1.9.10 @ 1:08PM
The "Son of EFCA" sounds worse then the father. I hope The Chamber of Commerce and other groups that supports small business champion this fight.
Richard Baker| 1.9.10 @ 1:14PM
I thought it a joke when McDonnell was attacked by the Liberals in Virginia because he'd written a supposedly controversial paper in college. Compare that to a total blackout on anything written by the Kenyan in his "years" in college.
Roger Schweikert| 1.11.10 @ 11:47AM
Touche. What do you think about the recent release under the Freedom of Information Act that he was a Fulbright scholarship recipient while he attended Occidental College? These scholarships are only awarded to foreign born citizens from the U.S. State Department for recipients to study here and as such would represent a violation of the Article II Section 5 of the constitution on his ability to serve in addition to his other "constitutional disability" described in section three of the 14th amendment.
Yosemeti Sam| 1.9.10 @ 4:03PM
"By running on the model of Bob McDonnell, Republicans could have very large pickups in the House, Senate and with governorships," he said.
"So the future is there for the Republican Party and McDonnell is the key to that future."
There you have it - Mr. Steele and your shilly-shallying sisterhood in the GOP.
Eyes opened?
As the saying goes: lead, follow or - get OUT of the way:
In PROMOTING conservatism; not by infamous example, the 'intellectual' approach exhibited in support of an upstate NY election double-dealing RINO candidate.
Osa,as Pajamjas| 1.10.10 @ 2:09AM
How about if you Republicans torpedo the Democrats on the liberalism vesus statism issue?
The Democrats believe in "statism" --- not "liberalism." Famous brands of statism in recent centuries have been Nazism, socialism, fascism, communism, and welfare statism [sort of a mix of fascism and socialism].
Liberalism, on the other hand, is a political philosophy of small, cheap government, and the job of a liberal government is to enforce human rights within its own jurisdiction.
I speak of the inalienable and perfectly-natural and universally-valid human rights of life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of personal happiness.
The first article of private property is "the self" and all other rights are derivatives of and flow from these cardinal rights.
These rights ----The Rights of Man ---- are the gift of nature or of nature's god ---- and they belong to all human beings, everywhere.
Show me a Democrat who subscribes to all of the above, without qualification or weasel words.
The words "liberal" and "liberalism" were hijacked by the Democrats and socialists long ago ---- and the mistake of conservatives and libertarians was to let them get away with it.
It is long past time that liberalism be reclaimed, defined, and explained by its rightful owners ---- by the champions of freedom, I.E.: not by Democrats and socialists.
Appleby| 1.11.10 @ 7:26AM
The first thing you need to do in order for this campaign to succeed is get young people to start reading something longer than 140 characters. Young people are the ones who discuss things and spread the word. The rest of us have jobs.
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