The CAFTA 15
Posted by Moonage on 18 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: National Politics
In July 2005, Congress was debating the Central America Free Trade Agreement. It was a contentious debate falling pretty much along party lines. The AFL-CIO lobbied heavily against it. In the end, fifteen Democrats went against party lines and voted for it. Because of that, it passed, 217-215. The AFL-CIO was so incensed at the CAFTA 15 that they swore revenge come election time. Those fifteen are:
- Bean, Melissa
- Cooper, Jim
- Cuellar, Henry
- Dicks, Norman
- Hinojosa, Ruben
- Jefferson, William
- Matheson, Jim
- Meeks, Gregory
- Moore, Dennis
- Moran, James
- Ortiz, Solomon
- Skelton, Ike
- Snyder, Victor
- Tanner, John
- Towns, Edolphus
As of this date, 11 of the 15 have already won their primaries. Two of the remaining four don’t have primary opposition. Only one, William Jefferson, is in trouble, for other reasons. Most likely scenario, all fifteen will be running in November.
Which leads me to wonder, what will the AFL-CIO do in November? As of the total washout by the AFL-CIO that has been the primaries, the AFL-CIO’s apparent official position NOW is "to sit this one out". They’d rather be shot down in flames than endorse any Republican apparently.
I have no doubt most or all of those fifteen will win in November. What I do doubt is that AFL-CIO had anything to do with them getting there in the first place. And this November will prove it.
I’d love to have given AFL-CIO more credit and speculated the ramifications of them following through on their threat and pushing out the organized labor vote for Republicans in the fall, which would definitely cripple the Democrat chances of taking the House. But, it won’t happen. The AFL-CIO is pretty much a toothless tiger that can only support one party or not. And when they don’t, it’s meaningless because they can’t in their soul of souls go against that party. Since their members know that it’s one party or nothing, they’ll vote the same way regardless of what the AFL-CIO lobbyists do or say.
Only when the AFL-CIO starts examining candidates on their positions instead of whether or not they are Democrat or not, will the AFL-CIO become a viable political force again. And, I don’t see that happening.
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