The Chamber of Commerce has decided to buck the Republican nominee in the race for California’s 52nd Congressional District and instead back the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA).
“We believe that your re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives will help produce sustained economic growth, help create jobs, and get our country back on track,” Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue wrote in a letter to Peters on Aug. 29, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday. “We will encourage the business community to vigorously support your candidacy.”
The endorsement is welcome news for Peters (pictured) who is in a tight race against former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio (R).
“We’re not surprised that a special interest group in D.C. is trying to protect members of Congress —they like the system the way it is. They know Carl DeMaio is coming to end the perks of this crowd,” DeMaio spokesman Dave McCulloch told the San Diego newspaper.
Rob Engstrom, the national political director for the Chamber, shot back that the DeMaio campaign tried to get the group’s endorsement.
.@carldemaio spox needs to get facts straight. The campaign actively sought our endorsement. Sour grapes. http://t.co/JFJb5uygsU
— Rob Engstrom (@RobEngstrom) September 3, 2014
It’s also a rare move for the Chamber of Commerce which usually backs establishment-aligned Republicans. In 2012, the Union Tribune noted, the group backed GOP Rep. Brian Bilbray over Peters.
Peters also voted 69 percent of the time on legislation supported by the organization in 2013, according to the Chamber. DeMaio has been running as a moderate but Peters’ campaign has tried to portray him as a hard-right conservative.
Earlier in the year TPM flagged a dustup between DeMaio and National Journal when the publication accused the candidate of plagiarizing a report on pension double-dipping.
This story has been updated.
Maybe they finally realized that people have more money to spend when the economy’s not in the tank. I doubt the endorsement matters much though. Those business owners will retain their political alignment despite the overall endorsement.
The, “Chamber of Commerce” might have just realized what they are supposedly all about.
The Repubs version of commerce is called war.
“We believe that your re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives will help produce sustained economic growth, help create jobs, and get our country back on track,” Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue wrote in a letter to Peters on Aug. 29
Sounds like a Democrat only a mother could love. This is all capitalist doublespeak for gutting the middle class on behalf of the oligarchy.
I have been wondering when business groups, especially those interested in immigration reform and uninterested in social issues, might finally realize they’d be better of aligning themselves with Democrats. No, they won’t get the tax breaks and deregulation they so desperately want but they will get a functioning government. They will get a government that passes budgets, that raises the debt ceiling without incident, that won’t threaten to blow up the economy every time they don’t get their way. They will also get a government that wants to grow the middle class, which will result in more buyers for their products and services.
This is only one of a handful of Democrats the CofC is endorsing but I have long thought it was a matter of time before someone over there started looking at how badly Republican policies and intransigence has hurt the business community along with everyone else.
Scott Peters is a San Diego Democrat, AKA a Mainstream (non-Tea) Republican.
DeMaio is a nitwit.