This week's Civic Skinny - 12-21-05 All about project labor agreements

[Debi]

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Here's a scorecard on the players according to a Democratic Party bigwig who has been close to the situation:

John Mauro - He definitely won this battle and never backed down. "But if he really thought the jail would lose when he made the promise to the trades, some people are wondering if he promised the other side he would vote 'no,'" a union official added.

Mike Blouin - The PLA issue is just another illustration of Blouin looking like he's flip-flopping. Blouin now says he's a big PLA supporter, but when he was head of the Greater Des Moines Partnership his lobbyists helped pass a Republican bill to ban PLA's in Iowa. It's kind of like his position on abortion, he's opposed to it, but he doesn't want to have to do anything about it if it will cost him votes. Blouin, sources have told us, was threatened by Jochum to lose Mauro as a supporter or pay the price of union support. No word as of press time regarding which way the unions are leaning when it comes to picking a Democratic candidate, but we've heard it's likely Blouin.

Tom Vilsack - According to one of our sources, he and Sally Pederson warned Chet Culver to not get too far in front of the PLA issue, which might fly with the DLC (The Democratic Leadership Council, which is a group that was founded by moderate Democrats to move the party to the center - Vilsack was recently elected their president), but could piss off unions who Vilsack's going to need when he runs for president.

Tom Hockensmith - When the trades were pissed off at the whole board last summer, he told them to get it to a vote and he'd be with them. When they decided to take him up on it this fall, he went running to AFSCME and others to pressure the trades to back off. He's the most vulnerable Democrat on the board, and if the Building Trades sit out his election it will likely cost him.

The Building Trades - They lost this battle, but every major Democratic candidate for governor has pledged to support PLAs in the future, so they may end up winning the war.

The Democratic Party - It's too soon to tell on the state level, but some of the trades might tighten their purse strings a little if it's true that Pederson was bad mouthing their top issue. One thing is for sure, though: Polk County Democrats are going to take a substantial financial hit.

Tom Jochum - Our source told us that he's told some folks that his email to Dan Homan (Civic Skinny, Dec. 8) conveyed the message he wanted delivered, but he would have been better off if he "hadn't lapsed into his native tongue." Some have said Jochum is "ill." But when we asked him if he was, he told us he was well enough to know that he is "tired of being in this column."

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http://www.dmcityview.com/skinny.shtml

[IA_Seth]

1. Where is our leadership?

I can't fathom that a PLA issue would ever come down to causing damage like this to our party. If organized labor can't count on the leadership of our Democratic Party, who the hell are they suppose to trust?

I swear, sometimes Democrats that wield real power begin to resemble the right.

[rurallib]

2. self-delete