Business takes labor debate to grassroots
BALLOT BOX
STORMING RICHMOND
If dollars can capture a statehouse, Terry McAuliffe will get one.
Money matters in politics. Everyone knows that. The question in Virginia this year is whether it will trump every other consideration and elect the next governor.
The money belongs to Terry McAuliffe, who lives in the D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia but has no significant ties to the state as a whole. He's never held office; the one thing he has done prodigiously well in politics is raise funds. As chair of the Democratic National Committee and a campaign manager for the Clintons, he brought in nearly $1 billion.
He's doing the same kind of thing right now in Virginia. McAuliffe raised as much in his first six weeks of campaigning as his opponents in the upcoming June primary had managed in six months. And they aren't trivial opponents. Brian Moran, a longtime state legislator, has good statewide contacts. State Senator Creigh Deeds was his party's nominee for attorney general four years ago, and nearly won.
But while Deeds and Moran have garnered most party endorsements, neither of them has the name recognition that may be necessary to withstand the onslaught McAuliffe is about to unleash. McAuliffe undoubtedly will lose some votes on carpetbagging charges--he grew up in Syracuse, New York, and roots have traditionally mattered a great deal in Virginia. But given the strong possibility that the primary will draw as little as 10 percent of the electorate, McAuliffe's ads and sophisticated targeting may be hard to overcome.
Deeds, in particular, has reason to brood about what might have been. Another 400 votes in 2005, and he would be state attorney general, heir apparent to the nomination, and probably a favorite to win in November. Instead, it is Deeds' Republican opponent from four years ago, Attorney General Bob McDonnell, who is coasting to nomination unopposed.
Democrats are on a roll in Virginia; in the past three years, they have won the governorship and both U.S. Senate seats, captured the state Senate, and brought in a majority for Barack Obama. But the primary competition on the Democratic side is likely to blunt some of that momentum.
There is one other important factor: The current occupant of the governor's mansion in Richmond, Tim Kaine, is the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Democrats are not going to have a money problem, regardless of who's nominated. "Kaine, as DNC chair, can't afford to lose the governorship of his own state," says political scientist Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia. Solid as McDonnell may look right now, he is not going to take the governorship without a strenuous fight.
--Alan Greenblatt
The new governor of Illinois, Patrick Quinn, may not find it a breeze dealing with legislators, but thanks to him, there arenet as many to deal with as there once were: It was Quinnes citizen initiative in 1980 that reduced the size of the Illinois House from 177 to 118.
CARD CHECK CONFLICT
Is the secret ballot sacred? Not if you're a union organizer.
The hottest business-labor dispute in Congress may soon become an issue in elections in a number of states.
It's the debate over whether workers should be able to unionize by signing public petitions (a process known as "card check") or be required to hold secret-ballot elections. A business-backed group called Save Our Secret Ballot is pushing for initiatives to amend the constitutions of at least five states to require secret votes.
Businesses fear that under card check, union leaders could bully workers into signing petitions, leading to broader unionization. "The argument for the secret ballot in union elections is no different than the argument for the secret ballot anywhere," says Clint Bolick, the attorney who wrote the initiative. "You don't want people staring over your shoulder when you vote."
Labor argues that it's employers who are pressuring workers not to unionize. Unions also are fighting in the states, and have persuaded a few legislatures to let public employees use card check.
In the private sector, though, the secret ballot is all but universal. The great business fear is that Congress will change current state practice with a federal card-check law.
What's not clear is whether the measures being promoted by the business-backed group would have any practical effect. If Congress does vote to allow card check and states vote to require the secret ballot, the two laws would be in conflict. In those situations, the feds usually win.
--Josh Goodman