Races to Watch

Ohio – 18

Incumbent Republican Bob Ney (R) finds himself in the race of his political life against Democrat Zack Space. Ney is neck deep in the Jack Abramoff scandal and there is real sense in Washington circles he will be indicted – possibly before Election Day. Democrats are touting a poll showing Ney 11 points down in a head-to-head match up against Space. Republicans have countered with a poll showing Ney ahead, but not by a comfortable margin.

Ney has been a Big Labor Republican since his election to Congress in 1994. This cycle alone union PACS have contributed over $103,900 to the threatened incumbent (See OpenSecrets.org).

Space has pledged to “never put corporate interests ahead of the people I represent,” but certainly seems willing to put Big Labor interests above the interests of his potential constituents. Union officials are contributing to Space as well. How do union represented employees figure all this out?

Energize Us

It appears that Republicans will be heading into a very tough November election and now a new poll conducted in the top 50 congressional districts confirms it. (A copy of the poll can be found at http://www.npr.org/programs/
morning/features/2006/jul/nprpoll/Final.pdf
.

The survey by Democrat Stan Greenburg and Republican Glen Bolger, paid for by National Public Radio, was conducted in the 50 most competitive districts in America (districts we will profile in this blog). Republicans currently hold forty of those fifty districts.

The survey found that in the fifty most competitive House districts, Democrats maintain a generic ballot lead of 48-41. That is better than many national polls but these are seats currently held by Republican members. When people are told the names of the candidates from both parties, the margin closed a little more but Democrats still lead 49-43.

Most troubling for Republicans is the low level of passion among their grass roots base. Democrats held a large edge among voters with a high enthusiasm to vote.

History has shown time and time again that when voters see action on the forced unionism issue Right to Work supporters benefit.

Here is our prescription to the United States Congress – bring a National Right to Work Bill, H.R. 500, and energize 2.2 million Right to Work Committee members as well as 8 out of every ten Americans who know it is just plain wrong to force a worker to join or pay dues to a labor union just to get or keep a job.!