Report: Fair Trade a Winning Issue Nov. 7

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/11/10/report-fair-trade-a-winning-issue-nov-7/

Report: Fair Trade a Winning Issue Nov. 7

by James Parks, Nov 10, 2006

Some pundits claim the Democrats won the 2006 election by moving toward the right, but that certainly is not true when it comes to trade. In dozens of districts up for grabs, trade issues gave Democratic candidates an edge over Republicans damaged by Iraq and the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley(R-Fla.). A recent poll shows low-skilled U.S. workers are 40 percent more likely to believe their jobs could be sent offshore.

In the Laying it on the Line blog, Transport Workers (TWU) union Legislative and Political Director Roger Tauss notes that every Democratic candidate in a competitive Senate race, except Harold Ford (who lost in Tennessee), ran at least one ad on trade issues diametrically opposed to the so-called New Democrats’ “Whatever’s good for Wall Street” free trade position.

Now comes a report showing that in practically every race in the Nov. 7 election that pitted a supporter of the free trade status quo against a fair trade advocate who backs making the global economy work for everybody, the fair trader won. The analysis by Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch defines a free trader as a lawmaker who consistently votes for bad trade deals that do not protect the environment or workers’ rights. Almost all voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and other flawed Bush trade agreements. Fair traders, on the other hand, support including enforceable core workers’ rights in all trade agreements and will pressure President Bush to enforce U.S. trade laws more effectively and consistently. For this reason, they opposed CAFTA, which is modeled after the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that cost more than 1 million good paying U.S. jobs, while doing little to foster equitable development in Mexico.

Some 25 paid campaign ads on trade and offshoring ran in races across the country and trade was a wedge issue in 100 campaigns, the report says. Election exit polls conducted by CNN and The New York Times revealed that Americans’ anxiety about the economy and job security trumped Iraq war concerns.

Many Republicans who supported CAFTA and generally backed the Bush administration’s trade polices were defeated Tuesday, including Reps. Clay Shaw (Fla.), Nancy Johnson (Conn.), Chris Chocola (Ind.), Melissa Hart (Pa.) and J.D. Hayworth (Ariz.). Each was replaced by a supporter of fair trade.

Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) had pledged to oppose CAFTA. At the last moment, however, he failed to cast his vote against the agreement, allowing the pact’s one-vote passage. Taylor’s non-vote may have been a big reason for his loss to fair trader Democrat Heath Shuler, who made it a major campaign issue.

Public Citizen cited several House and Senate races where trade was a top winning issue. In Iowa, Democrat Bruce Braley won an open seat. In Kansas, Democrat fair trader Nancy Boyda defeated anti-fair trade incumbent Jim Ryan in a race where Boyda called for failed free trade deals to be replaced by fair trade agreements. In Missouri, Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, won a Senate seat from incumbent Jim Talent in a race featuring her promises to “block the outsourcing of Missouri jobs” and to “fight for fair trade policies.”

[hansberrym]

1. Thats great news, let's hope the trend continues in '08 (nt)