Fair Trade Policies and Positions Paid Off in Midterm Elections

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6620/fair_trade_policies_and_positions_pay_off_in_election/

Monday 8 Nov 10 9:38 am

By Kari Lydersen


Newly elected John Carney (D-Del.) will replace retiring nine-term "unfair" trader Rep. Mike Castle (R). Carney pledged to push for trade policies that will reduce the offshoring of jobs. (Photo by MARK WILSON/Getty Images)


Thousands of working-class and middle-class people largely voted against their own interests in bringing a wave of Republican candidates, including many Tea Party members, to victory in last week's midterm elections.

But on at least one front, the American public seemed to vote in favor of positions that protect and maintain American jobs as well as decent living standards in other countries, according to a new report by Public Citizen analyzing 182 races.

Both Republican and Democratic candidates whose records, campaigns and positions opposed free trade, offshoring and government purchase of foreign-made goods – and those who actively supported fair trade – fared significantly better in the election than those who did not espouse these ideas, the study found.

Public Citizen’s press release says:

House Democrats that ran on fair trade platforms in competitive and open-seat races were three times as likely to survive the GOP tidal wave than Democrats who ran against fair trade…

The GOP tsunami obliterated many candidate-specific features of the midterm contests, but trade, job offshoring and/or government purchases of foreign-made goods were a stunningly persistent national focus of midterm election campaigns, with 205 candidates campaigning on these issues. A record number of 75 Republicans adopted some fair trade messaging as well, 43 of whom won their races.


FULL story at link.