Republican members of Congress heading home to campaign during the summer recess may find themselves face to face with the frustration of organized labor. The AFL-CIO is planning to target several prominent incumbent Republicans running in high-profile races over recess, hitting them with protests outside their district offices.
“Over the past Congress there have been many issues for Representatives to show which side they were on,” AFL-CIO spokesperson Eddie Vale told TPMDC today. “And now we’re going to start drawing contrasts, and blasting members who haven’t been on the right side of jobs.”
Vale didn’t say exactly how many Republican incumbents will be included in the protests, but he said top targets for the action include Reps. Thad McCotter (MI), Michele Bachmann (MN), Patrick Tiberi (OH), Jo Bonner (AL), Adam Putnam (FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Joesph Cao (LA), Dan Lungren (CA), Ken Calvert (CA), Mary Bono (CA), Charles Djou (HI), Dave Reichert (WA), Jim Gerlach (PA) and Charlie Dent (PA). Maine’s GOP Senate contingent, Susan Collins and Oympia Snowe, are also targets.
The AFL-CIO will also target incumbent GOP Representatives running for Senate seats this year including Mark Kirk (IL), Mike Castle (DE), Roy Blunt (MO) and Lee Terry (NE).
The focus of the action over the recess will be on Republican votes against financial reform as well as job creation bills proposed by the Democrats. The AFL-CIO has lobbied heavily in favor of those bills as they worked their way through Congress, and now Vale says the upcoming protests are meant to show the unions are putting their political money where their issue-advocacy mouth is.
“As we’ve been talking a lot about [over] the past year our issues campaigns and our political program are completely intertwined,” he said. “We’re going to be showing that over recess.”
