When Public Opinion Attacks: Unions Circle the Political Wagons
Public service announcement: campaign watcher Jay Cost has a new home at The Weekly Standard. When he's not writing what you need to know, he's linking to it.
Case in point: Jay points us to Politico's take on faltering union fortunes this election season:
Facing an angry and skeptical electorate, the AFL-CIO plans to scale back its political advertising budget for the midterm elections, convinced that its members can more effectively reach voters than the usual raft of TV spots in support of Democratic candidates.
I'm over the moon for face-to-face political arguments -- that's citizenship in action. I'm just not terribly certain that the unions mean quite what they're saying. After all, they'll "spend about $2.5 million on direct mail and $2 million more on phone banking." And how's this for outreach?
Making sure they’re maximizing turnout of their members and that they’re doing the important persuasion to make sure that 65 to 70 percent support the union candidate, that’s going to be vital. None of those candidates win without those votes,” Rosenthal said. “We can mitigate some of the national mood and some of the factors that are playing against the Democrats by changing the equation and turning to those voters.
Sounds a bit like they're looking to win by running from that angry, skeptical electorate, not engaging with it. Democracy in action!
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