June 17, 2009 12:34 AM UTC

We Thought An Elephant Never Forgot?

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• by: ranr

My friend & colleague Kate Thomas over at SEIU just wrote this – thought I’d share – RN

Republicans pursue failed strategy attacking Dems on Employee Free Choice

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is planning on going after Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), according to a Roll Call article today. Yet the NRSC seems to have already forgotten the lessons of the 2008 campaigns, in which groups spent millions attacking Democrats on Employee Free Choice only to see those candidates go on to win–with voters approving Employee Free Choice by a considerable margin.

“We thought elephants never forgot, but Republicans have clearly forgotten the lessons of the 2008 elections: attacking Democrats on Employee Free Choice simply doesn’t work,” said SEIU Political Director Jon Youngdahl. “The fact is, voters see through these misinformation campaigns by wealthy corporate lobbyists. Working families know that when it comes to protecting their jobs and giving them a voice in the workplace, greedy CEOs just aren’t on their side.”

In 2008, Opponents Spent Millions Attacking Democratic Candidates, But the Democrats Still Won and the Voters Still Supported EFCA

In 2008, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and front groups like Americans for Job Security, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and the Employee Freedom Action Fund spent upwards of $20 million to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.  This includes more than $6.3 million on TV ads specifically targeting Democratic Senate candidates on the issue in battleground states.

These attacks were completely ineffective. Not only were six of the targeted Democratic candidates elected, but research shows that a majority of voters in these battleground states supported the Employee Free Choice Act by wide margins even after the millions spent by the bill’s opponents. A Hart Research survey conducted in November in seven Senate battleground states where anti-Employee Free Choice ads ran found that voters supported the Employee Free Choice Act by a 27-point margin.

[Polling Data from Hart Research, 11/5/08]

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user Joe Penniston @WDW 6/13-6/20