Experts Expound

“Meg Whitman’s new strategy is to go after Jerry Brown’s core union support, and try to drive a wedge between the rank-and-file and the leaders. Will this work?”

No way.  These efforts just provide more evidence that Meg Whitman has money to burn and, fortunately, that will play right into the messaging needed to beat her:  That she is a billionaire who  is completely out of touch with everyday working people.  

No, it won’t work.

Only a freezing July day in Sacramento.

I heard that she was going to put every labor member on her campaign payroll.

Nothing says “rank and file” more than a Lear jet and insider stock trading deals.

It will work if she spends enough money to make it work. So far, there appears to be no limit on how much she will spend to polish her own image or make people believe black is white. The woman is scary.

California public employee union leaders are about as popular as Charles Manson right now, for good reason: The philosophical divide between the selfish leftwing politics of union leadership and the more moderate rank-and-file has never been greater. Calling out tone-deaf union leaders making $300,000 a year while the state melts down financially could definitely help Whitman on the margins of a close election.

The reality is that in most cases union leaders are far more liberal than their members.  This is the sort of campaign effort that someone like Meg Whitman can afford to do that other campaigns have not been able to try. It will pay huge dividends for Republican campaigns in the future if done right.

CNA’s radical, headline-seeking, self-serving leadership is ripe for a hit, and Whitman is smart to take them head on. Might not work for other unions, like CSEA and SEIU, which she hopes to destroy by killing 40,000 state jobs.

Not a chance.

Not a chance. Working people have been devastated by the Bush-Cheney-Arnold right-wing machine. They are way too savvy to fall for another lie from this rich Republican retread.
It is a brilliant strategy. Whoever on her staff thought it up (or copied it) should get credit for it, and yes it will work to some extent. What it won’t do is stop the union spending for her opponent, but what it will do is garner her votes, and more importantly create awareness and resentment of the union leadership among the rank and file.  The lack of transparency always puts thuggery on display.

Hmmm …. I guess that strategy might make sense if she hadn’t threatened repeatedly to eliminate 40,000 of those rank-and-file jobs.

Absolutely. The union rank and file will surely rally around her “plan” to cut 40,000 state workers!

Nope.  His “key” union support comes from state employee unions not private sector employees [except, of course, farmworkers].

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