Labor Endorses…Lewis

Via Gary Gross at LFR – two unions have broken from the DFL borg and endorsed Jason Lewis:

The carpenters’ union and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, both of whichendorsed Hillary Clinton, will support the first-term congressman in the midterm elections in his rematch against former health care executive Angie Craig. Labor leaders praised Lewis’s record in Congress, highlighting his support for domestic energy development as well as his willingness to buck his political party. Lewis has supported Davis-Bacon, which favors union wage levels in federal projects despite the push in the conservative movement to abolish wage mandates.

“In Jason’s time in Congress he has cast repeated votes in support of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and has led on the issue of changing school curriculum to encourage more people to look at careers in the construction industry,” carpenters’ spokesman Adam Duininck said in a release.

Both unions also praised Lewis for focusing on local issues and maintaining a relationship with labor leaders. Local 49 business manager Jason George said that Lewis and the union were not in lockstep on every political issue, but the congressman had supported the issues that help support the building trades and traditional blue-collar workers.

There has been a slow, fitful trickle of private-sector unions coming over to the GOP – accelerated by the Trump Effect, it needs to be said.

And it only makes sense; the public sector unions that control the Democrat party have interests that are largely inimical to those of private-sector labor – indeed, the public ones, left with their own way, will eventually strangle the private ones.

Here’s hoping that the private unions still pack enough clout in places like Newport and Sourth Saint Paul, where Angie Craig will likely run strongest, to make a difference.

12 thoughts on “Labor Endorses…Lewis

  1. Satan will be riding his new snow machine before I ever welcome a skulking union thug into the fold.

    Lewis is the cuckservative I always figured he was.

  2. For years I’ve been telling friends who are members of private unions that they need their leadership to be more like the NRA. Historically the NRA endorsed whichever candidate’s record was best on 2nd amendment issues and nothing else, no Sierra Club, no LGBT, no affirmative action, just 2nd amendment. The NRA focused their support on candidates who shared their commitment to a specific civil right.
    Private unions need to do the same. They need to focus on their membership; helping them work their way into the middle class and helping them stay there. Good work regs, good benefits, good training, good opportunities, that’s where their focus should be.
    What Lewis has done is important and, in Minnesota, ground breaking. It should be encouraged and Lewis should be supported in his continuing efforts to peel a constituency away from the DFL plantation.

  3. Will this swing enough votes the keep Lewis in Congress? Every poll Ive seen has him down anywhere from 3 to 10 points and 538.com gives Craig something like a 90% chance of flipping this seat

  4. I’d be interested to see what else was in the bill besides Davis-Bacon exemptions. I remember from his show that Lewis wasn’t a fan, and if it was the Budget Bill Lewis voted No because it was too large.

  5. I drive around Eagan quite bit, and early on the only lawn signs I saw (or noticed) were for Angie Craig. Lately, though, the lawn sign count appears to be nearly even, including an interesting case yesterday where both a Craig and a Lewis sign were side-by-side in the same yard.

  6. I drive around Eagan quite bit, and early on the only lawn signs I saw (or noticed) were for Angie Craig. Lately, though, the lawn sign count appears to be nearly even, including an interesting case yesterday where both a Craig and a Lewis sign were side-by-side in the same yard.

    I drive up Burnsville Parkway on my way home from my job and the Lewis signs far outnumber the Craig signs.

  7. Im just going off the polling he uses, but espically after the 2016 polling debacle I have greater trust in the MSM to accurately report the news than these polling projections to accurately predict election outcomes. As I (and many others these days) am fond of saying, there is only one poll that matters, the one on election day.

  8. I personally trust RCP and their polling over 538. I think after next Tuesday Nate Silver will have a tin if egg on his face and have to completely revamp or shut down his polling stuff. I think the Republicans hold the House by 2-5 seats and will be anywhere from +5 to +9 in the Senate.

  9. As an FYI to Mitch, I posted a comment on this last night, along the lines of Swiftee’s, but it’s not here. I wasn’t vulgar, but it had “Hell” in it.

  10. In the days of the Roman Empire, they used a haruspex to examine the entrails of animals to divine the future. Today we have lawn signs and 538. And, as the guy in a galaxy long ago and far away said, “And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!”

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