Kimberly Strassel on Virginia Democrat Creigh Deeds stalking horse candidacy to repeal Virginia’s Right to Work law:
And don’t forget Big Labor, which worries that a prominent Democratic defeat might slow its political momentum in Washington. Labor has also been itching to make purple Virginia a proving ground for ambitions like rolling back right-to-work laws. The unions need Mr. Deeds to win.
These big forces are pouring everything into a Deeds victory. Presidential and DNC fund raising helped the relatively unknown Democrat raise $3.5 million the last quarter alone, a bigger haul than any gubernatorial candidate in state history. Unions, including biggies like the SEIU, chipped in nearly a quarter.
Mr. Deeds needs that money, yet the penalty has been guilt by association. His opponent, Republican and former state Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, made a big bet early on that the very Virginia voters who last year helped Mr. Obama win the state today have grave doubts about his agenda, and are wary of making the same mistake. Mr. Deeds has played right into his hands.
Thanks to the Committee's election-year program, union-label candidates like Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) are being given a choice: pledge to change course and support Right to Work going forward, or face the potential political consequences.
Biden judicial nominee Nicole Berner has a track record of mindlessly repeating union bosses’ anti-Right to Work diatribes and defending their schemes to profit at the expense of the disabled.
In 2020, Big Labor senators like Monty Mason and then-Gov. Ralph Northam colluded to kill Virginia’s ban on monopolistic public-sector unionism. Now Mr. Mason and his legislative cohorts must answer to their constituents.