If you want to see President Obama reelected, stories like this one from TPM’s Kyle Leighton this morning should really worry you. Polls all over show Democratic base voters are looking at the next election cycle and letting out a big “meh,” while Republicans are raring to get to an election booth and vote the president out of office.
These are the things one-term presidencies can be made of. But fear not, one of the largest segments of the Democratic base says, Obama’s doing what he needs to get his base to shake off the doldrums.
Asked about the polling numbers by TPM Thursday, AFL-CIO spokesperson Jeff Hauser confirmed that the all-important union voters his group represents are feeling the blues when it comes to waging an electoral fight on behalf of Democrats. (The AFL-CIO is officially non-partisan, and Hauser spoke only of “friendly politicians,” but even group president Richard Trumka said recently that “chances are” the AFL-CIO will back Obama next year.)
The feeling of less-than-thrilled among labor, Hauser said, comes from the fight over the debt ceiling.
“The summer conversation that was so focused on the non-existent short-term deficit problem and the fixation on cutting spending rather than creating jobs was demobilizing,” Hauser said.
But Obama’s new push for his American Jobs Act has turned things around, Hauser said — even if the polls don’t show it yet.
“Working people needed to hear a focus on jobs,” he explained. “That is now what they’re hearing from Obama and Democratic leadership. And we expect that will overtime reflect itself in the polling.”
For its part, the AFL-CIO is in the process of rejiggering the way it deals with elections. In the past, labor leaders would start mobilizing a few weeks before an election and push hard with GOTV. Trumka has said the union is now going to mobilize year-round as part of what he characterizes as the party declaring “independence” from the Democrats. That new scheme should be up and running soon and Hauser said it will also boost enthusiasm among the natural Democratic base in labor.
“We think that will help all friendly politicians,” he said.
