Labor dominates in California

Good posts over at California Majority

Chris Lehane gives a run-down of Labor victories from the past year and how they’ve proven their dominance of California politics.

In 2005, by adroitly using firefighters, cops, teachers and nurses, and focusing on the right messages (e.g. taking away death benefits from widows), Labor spanked Arnold up and down the state. After Labor was done with Arnold, he was a mere spectral figure of his past with his approval ratings dropping from the mid-60s to the high 30s. The Arnold of 2006, tail between his legs, wisely decided to roll over and put all four paws up in the air when it came to fighting with Labor.

As a result, Labor, working with Democratic leaders Perata and Nunez and other progressive organizations, has accomplished more in 2006 than most people would hope to get from a Democratic governor in an entire term: a significant minimum raise increase; a prescription drug benefit; workers comp concessions; the largest contract ever for state employees; funding restored for public education; an infrastructure plan (even the LAUSD bill that passed the Senate had significant labor protections included). All this from a governor who less than a year ago was trying to take away the right of workers to eat lunch!

snip

To stay on top long-term, Labor will need to couple its ability to use its organizational muscle to move the electoral dial in terms of turnout and contributions with identifying a progressive agenda that will mean something to people throughout the state. By progressive agenda – I don’t mean small bore ten point programs but truly big ideas like a statewide 401(k) plan to supplement Social Security; expanding compulsory public education from K-12 to pre-K-college to meet the challenges of a future where brains will be more important than brawn; a statewide livable wage indexed to inflation so that incomes will continue to grow; strengthened shareholder rights to protect against corporate irresponsibility. And such a progressive agenda is exactly what Labor needs to be thinking about as it stretches its political muscles in the parades and rallies this weekend.

This is all very outstanding in many ways, but it has its pitfalls, IMO. As Lehane says, “Labor wins when it is perceived as fighting for issues and values that benefit everyone – not just their organizations” – very true, and so does the general public, but that’s not always the case. A teacher friend of mine who had voted for Arnold but became disillusioned with him and was vehemently against the Special Election still wondered aloud about the teacher “merit pay” initiatives and while she disagreed with Arnold’s proposal wondered why the unions didn’t offer a viable alternative beyond “NO” to what she perceives in her experience to be a real problem with bad teachers and lack of incentive to improve. When unions dominate, they have no incentive to re-examine their own strategies. One hopes that they can take the opportunity, even so, to innovate for the benefit of all Californians. (if any readers who happen by this post know something I don’t about recent union strategies along these lines, please let me know. I will admit that I’ve been away from Cali for a year – so apologies if I’ve missed something.)

On the local level, grassroots activists often complain about “establishment Dems” in California making it difficult for local Democrats to have an influence on who gets to run for state seats, but the true “establishment” influence often can be tracked right back to labor king/queenmakers. I don’t know how many activists really understand this.

Oh SNAP! Go Massa and Walz! Smackdown of Rumsfeld

via Fighting 29th and crossposted at The Big Orange

Eric Massa and Tim Walz were on a DNC conference call this morning with reporters in response to Rumsfeld’s outrageous statements on Tuesday to veterans at an American Legion meeting. AP reports Rumsfeld said that:

the world faces “a new type of fascism” and warned against repeating the pre-World War II mistake of appeasement. Rumsfeld alluded to critics of the Bush administration’s war policies in terms associated with the failure to stop Nazism in the 1930s, “a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among the Western democracies.”

Democrats Massa and Walz, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, co-chair of the DNC’s Veterans and Military Families Council spoke to reporters in response:

Massa:

“After 21 months of trying to find something I can agree with Secretary Rumsfeld on, it is true: the American people are being lied to and I totally agree with Secretary Rumsfeld,” Eric Massa, a Navy veteran, said Wednesday. “What I disagree with is the fact that he’s the one doing the lying.”

snip

Massa, who is challenging one-term Republican Rep. Randy Kuhl, said he was outraged by Rumsfeld’s comments and faulted him for blaming the media for his own misstatements and missteps.

Walz:

Walz, a Minnesota schoolteacher and veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard, said the Bush administration has no effective plan to secure the country.

“This thing has disintegrated,” Walz said of Iraq. “On the macro level, there’s an absolute failure.”

This is a great rapid media response from the DNC. Give them some props, and Go netroots candidates! Go Fighting Dems!

(NY-29) MoveOn “Caught Red-Handed” ads put GOP Randy Kuhl on defensive

For the official record: I have volunteered with the Massa campaign, but in no way am I officially affiliated with them or do my views on the race and these MoveOn ads reflect the views of the Massa campaign. I’m just a blogger and a passionate Democrat who really likes Eric Massa.

MoveOn.org has been running 2 ads each about Randy Kuhl in the NY-29th, and also about about John Sweeney in the NY-20th, called “Caught Red-Handed”. See them here.  Text below for the Kuhl ads:

First Ad

Caught red-handed again. Congressman Randy Kuhl accepted thousands of dollars from Defense Contractor PACs. Then he opposed penalties for Defense Contractors like Halliburton who overcharged the mil in Ira at a time when soliders didn’t have enough body armor. Tom Delay Dick Cheney and now Randy Kuhl Another Republican caught red-handed.

Second Ad

What happened to the $300 billion dollars we sent to Iraq? Halliburton got $18 billion, $9 billion is just plain missing. And our Congressman Randy Kuhl has been caught red handed voting for all of it. That’s money we need for jobs and healthcare here in NY. Now Randy Kuhl is ready to dump billions more in Iraq. Randy Kuhl, another Republican caught red-handed…

Both Republicans have responded by lawyering up (Sweeney link) or demanding that the stations pull the ads (Kuhl link)  This is, in turn, giving the ads and their content a great deal of free media coverage…..

Contrary to earlier press reports, none of the stations have pulled the ads, but have done fact checks and instead have found no legitimate reason to pull them. Kuhl did indeed vote for several appropriations, and against oversight on defense contractors he received PAC money from. Some stations have already run through the media buy that MoveOn has done so they are no longer running.

But the buzz continues, thanks to statements like these from Kuhl’s 24 year old campaign manager and son, James Kuhl:

“I would say it’s a phrase that implies one thing across all people. If you say red handed it automatically assumes illegitimate activity,” said James Kuhl.

Kuhl said there is nothing criminal about voting in congress.

News 10NBC contacted MoveOn.org in Washington.

“Webster’s Dictionary defines `red handed’ as misdeed. Yes if you’re describing a crime it could also mean that but we’re not describing a crime we’re making a charge that he has not done a good job performing his duties as a member of Congress,” said, Tom Matzzie, the Washington Director of MoveOn.org.

As Exile on Erickson St says on Rochester Turning,

Note to candidates everywhere: it is never a good idea to claim that you haven’t done anything illegal when no one is alleging that you have.

and in fact, the Kuhl campaign is lying about why the ads are no longer running! From The Fighting 29th blog

Rochester’s ABC affiliate denies they pulled a MoveOn ad, as the Kuhl campaign claimed in an earlier press release.  The GM of the station says the ads finished their scheduled run.  He also denies the Kuhl campaign’s claim that WHAM concluded that the ad “contained multiple misrepresentations and was purposefully deceptive.”

Kuhl has got nothing to defend his votes to protect the Defense contractors, so instead he tries to smear MoveOn with lies.

From another post from F29th

But here’s where James (Kuhl, campaign manager)  is stuck. To defend against specific charges gives them more credence. So he sticks with the “red handed” defense and leaves the rest of the ad to stand unanswered.

In this case, MoveOn got what they wanted. Not only did they air their attack ads, but they also got some priceless prime-time news coverage which repeated the content of those ads.

Are the ads being effective? Jury’s still out in New York, but previous ads that MoveOn ran in Connecticut, Ohio and Virginia were polled before and after and results were quite good.

Cheers to local blogs in the NY-29:
Rochester Turning
Fighting 29th

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FINE!

I’ll start my own blog. Be that way….