A Victory for Reality

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spent millions of his own dollars campaigning for November ballot measures that attacked the state’s unions as “special interests.” Apparently he thought voters would look past his own cozy relationship with the state’s elite business interests. Californians saw the hypocrisy and voted down all ballot
measures.

It wasn’t just Democrats who won when Republicans lost gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, and Schwarzenegger’s referendums bombed.

The winners were all Americans who are sick of political campaigns that rely upon wedge issues and “slash and burn” personal attacks instead of healthy debates over real issues.

Jerry Kilgore, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, attacked his opponent, Tim Kaine, as a “tax and spend” liberal. Then he spent fortunes on fear-mongering ads that claimed that Kaine is soft on crime because he holds religious beliefs opposed to capital punishment, which boomeranged by giving Kaine a way to connect with voters of faith. Kaine stuck to the real issues affecting the lives of Virginians, like jobs, education, economic opportunity and suburban sprawl, and the voters responded.

In New Jersey, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester lost votes from his fellow party members and from independents by focusing on the private life of his opponent, Sen. Jon Corzine. Residents of that state, slammed hard by unfair trade and the flight of jobs, apparently felt that issues like health care and education should be at the top of a governor’s political agenda.

Schwarzenegger picked a fight with his state’s unions, including the IBEW, by introducing a ballot measure, called “paycheck protection” which would have curbed the right of public employee unions to have a voice in public affairs. He didn’t, however, lay a glove on the expensive lobbying by powerful corporations. Labor unions came together, and Californians cried foul.

The IBEW supported one California ballot measure calling for the state to take a step back from utility deregulation. But even this measure lost on Election Day, a victim of the very confusion and anger spawned by Schwarzenegger’s attack dog campaign.

The failure of the current administration to address major issues confronting Americans has put more of a burden on our states to come up with real solutions. Many states, for example, are devising methods to provide health coverage to the growing number of Americans who have lost private employer-based insurance.

In this serious situation, wedge issue political campaigns are worse than a farce.

You can’t read too much into an off-year election. Who knows what things will look like in 2006 when midterm Congressional elections are held? But I’m getting the sense that people are getting fed up. There is more focus on economic issues and practical matters that affect our daily lives. This is all we want. Let’s debate the real stuff like jobs and growth, not phony issues.

I don’t know if President Bush’s declining popularity is a factor in his party’s poor performance in November’s state elections. But I do know that most Americans are practical people. While we like to be stirred by candidates who talk tough and present a forceful image and ideology, in the end, we want more; we want our state and national leaders to be effective problem solvers.

As we approach next year’s midterm Congressional elections, all IBEW members need to absorb the lessons of November and work hard for candidates of either party who will bring us together, not divide us, a make a positive difference in our lives.

Jon F. Walters

International Secretary-Treasurer