Udall Opened up to Attack for Votes Paid for by Union Leaders

A charter school operator makes $4,600 in campaign contributions to well-known school choice supporter Bob Schaffer after Schaffer cast a vote as member of the State Board of Education in favor of the operator's charter school application. And the Left goes into full attack mode, pumped up with manufactured outrage.

Boulder liberal Mark Udall accepts hundreds of thousands of dollars from union leaders before he sponsors and lobbies Congress to pass an onerous bill (HR 800) at their behest, one that would strip workers of the right to secret ballot elections. And you can hear the crickets chirping.

Well, almost. One mixed-up liberal commenter at the Dead Governors site categorized the contributions as follows: "Udall is supported by hard working Americans." Only someone who isn't aware of (or supports) the coercive tactics unions use to raise political funds could make such a naive statement.

Interestingly, most Americans do get it, and do see the problem with Udall's campaign contributions and his support of HR 800. A 2006 poll conducted by Zogby (no link available) found that 55 percent of hard-working Americans believe that "labor unions have too much influence on our political leaders and public policy."

Udall happens to be on the wrong side of that one, choosing the influence of union leaders over the majority of Americans who support the rights of workers to associate but reject the coercive tactics and political corruption that compels some people to furnish funds for causes and candidates they do not support.

So, while some on the Left would like to downplay their own hypocrisy and the point of attack they've opened up for their own candidate, the issue won't go away.