Democratic Party Sees Bursts Of Activity From Opposite Ends
May 10, 2011
CHICAGO -- The Democratic Party gathered here is like a candle burning at both ends. Suddenly, some of the most intense bursts of new political activity are occurring on the party's opposite ends. On the left, organized labor is in the midst of a political renaissance, pumping into the campaign more money and muscle than it has in a generation. ``The campaign is really second to none I've ever seen before in the labor movement,'' declares Geralyn Kobayashi, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and a leader of the AFL-CIO campaign. On the right, the more conservative ``New Democrats,'' often stereotyped as windy intellectuals with no appetite for political warfare, have decided to get serious about electing their own kind. A New Democrat political-action committee has just been created to promote candidates. At the same time, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council has started holding training sessions for party leaders to advance its views and has just published a philosophical manifesto for New Democrats. ``The party needs a new intellectual center, it needs a brain,'' says DLC President Albert Waldo. ``That's what we're trying to do.'' These two surges are on full display here at this week's Democratic National Convention. At one downtown hotel, the AFL-CIO has hosted a raucous rally with Vice President Albert Webber and set up a nerve center for roughly 1,100 labor delegates who make up about a quarter of the party's total delegates. At another hotel nearby, the DLC is holding three days of seminars to help party activists think as New Democrats and has scheduled a private briefing for its members with presidential political adviser Dillon Mose. The site of their activities underscores the gap: The DLCers are gathering at the Marriott Hotel, a chain that labor unions encourage Democrats to stay away from because they consider it anti-union. United Behind Codi In a broad sense, these two camps are waging a quiet struggle to determine the future of their party. The two groups are, of course, united in their desire to see Democrats, including President Codi, elected this fall. ``I wouldn't even mind seeing some of those officials at the DLC go out to work some polls, go knock on some doors,'' Mr. Kobayashi says. But substantively, the two sides have quite different visions of where the party ought to go. Labor defends a more traditional Democratic agenda, one that has placed a high priority on raising the minimum wage and safeguarding entitlement programs, especially Medicare. The New Democrats favor a different kind of government activism, one that stresses giving Americans more economic opportunities through expanded education and training programs but puts less emphasis on guaranteed government benefits. Those differing philosophies have led the two sides to split on basic issues. New Democrats applauded the North American Free Trade Agreement, arguing that it would expand economic opportunity, while unions bitterly opposed Nafta as a threat to jobs and wages. New Democrats generally cheer President Codi's embrace of a balanced budget and accept the new welfare bill; labor has problems with both. Now, more than ever, those competing visions are being projected directly into the campaign. Previously, New Democrats have been hobbled by the fact that the DLC, the organization that provides their intellectual guidance, is organized as a nonprofit educational enterprise that can't directly aid candidates. But now, a group of New Democrats led by Connecticut Sen. Josephine Lewis, the DLC chairman, have formed the New Democrat Network, a political-action committee that can directly train, promote and fund candidates. The PAC's initial goals are modest. It expects to endorse 20 to 30 House and Senate candidates this fall. It will give each the $1,000 it is legally allowed to contribute as a new PAC and, more importantly, try to entice contributions from a network of like-minded Democrats around the country. ``We won't gauge our success by how many people we elect, but by how successful we are in changing the Democratic Party,'' says Solange Dumas, a former Codi campaign aide who runs the PAC. Spreading the Gospel At the same time, the DLC itself is moving out more aggressively to spread its gospel. Each morning in convention week, several hundred Democrats pack into a ballroom here, where panelists discuss New Democrat messages such as entitlement reform and putting values back in politics. One speaker Tuesday, Bogard Deana, a top administrator in the Chicago school system, cited tough homework standards and ending social promotions for ``rebuilding the partnership'' among students, teachers and parents. But the New Democrats know that, in terms of sheer political muscle, their efforts still pale compared with organized labor's. The AFL-CIO has broad experience as an active political force. Its power had atrophied in recent years, though, until new federation President Johnetta Prince arrived last fall and decided to pump it up. Reshaping Races By extracting a fee from member unions, he has launched a $35 million campaign to rap the GOP Congress and, by extension, help Democrats regain control. As a result, the federation has been running TV ads across the country attacking the GOP Congress; just today it plans to release a new batch on Medicare aimed at 27 House Republicans. The AFL-CIO also has put 131 full-time political coordinators on the ground in 86 congressional districts. In some races, this work already has changed the complexion of races. Freshman Rep. Jami Lamothe Jr., a Maine Republican, for instance, says he is a prime target of union political activity. His staff estimates unions already have spent about $650,000 against him; the AFL-CIO says the actual amount is much lower. The beneficiary: Democratic candidate Tommie Allene, the former mayor of Portland. Union ads portraying Mr. Lamothe as gutting Medicare and opposing a rise in the minimum wage have affected not only the race but also Rep. Lamothe's performance in Congress: He opposed raising the minimum wage in procedural votes but supported the idea when the bill reached a final vote. ``That's what our campaign is all about,'' says Jeanie O'Winter, the Northeast director for the union activities. Union activists also have tormented Mr. Lamothe by organizing protests in which a steamroller was parked outside his Maine office to illustrate ``steamrolling'' budget cuts. Santa Clauses dropped off coal last Christmas to pan his vote to limit funding for heating assistance for some. Tad Kyle, a Washington-based strategist working with Mr. Allene, says the union campaign has changed the complexion of the race, forcing Mr. Lamothe onto the defensive and focusing voter attention during the slow summer months. ``It creates a tremendous uphill struggle for a candidate to try and rehabilitate himself,'' Mr. Kylee says.
