CONGRESSIONAL PAY RAISES AND THE 2006 ELECTION

Apparently the House Democratic Leadership is not all that serious about taking back the majority. At least not if it inconveniences their colleagues among Democratic incumbents.

Pay Raises and the Minimum Wage. Case in point: the AFL-CIO is running a campaign to raise the minimum wage by contrasting it with Congressional pay raises. There have been seven Congressional pay raises since the last time Congress raised the minimum wage – a total of $31,600 including the raise that was engineered into the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations conference report in the dark of night.

House Democrats Oppose Campaign. But hold on! House Democratic Leadership is pushing back hard, asking labor not to make an issue of the pay raises, afraid it will hurt incumbents who accepted the raise without protest.

In trying to suppress the issue, they are taking a most effective weapon out of the arsenal of Democratic challengers to incumbent Republicans. The Congressional pay raise is the kind of symbolic issue that stands for all the others – like the House banking scandal of the early 90’s.

Pay Raises and the 2005 PA Elections Any doubts? Take a look at what happened in this year’s Pennsylvania elections. State legislators voted themselves and other state office holders a fat pay raise which Gov. Rendell signed in less than an hour.

Outrage swept the state like a forest fire, easily consuming attempts by both political parties to quiet it. No state legislative elections in 2005? No problem. The grassroots activists took aim at the nearest political target, two Supreme Court justices who were up for retention.

Incumbent PA state judges stand for retention at the end of each term – they appear on the ballot without opposition and need only a 50% “yes” vote to retain their office. This is such a slam dunk that no one had ever even conducted a campaign before this year.

This time, in the crosshairs of the populist storm, they raised money and campaigned. On election day one barely survived. The other, Judge Russell Nigro, made history of a sort, becoming the first judge in the history of the retention election to lose office, a testament to the power of the pay raise issue.

Caucus Solidarity or Fight to Win So what’s it going to be? Pull out all the stops to win or sit around the campfire, holding hands and singing Kumbaya?

To win you take chances – like the Republicans took when they shaved margins in their incumbents’ seats in Texas. In a Democratic year the incumbents who fall are likely to be the Republicans anyway. Either way, if you want to win, you shoot to kill. And that means targeting every incumbent Republican with the pay raise issue.

Challenger candidates, and those of us who contribute to them, should keep a sharp eye on campaign consultants. Paid by the candidates, they nonetheless owe most of their business to the Party Committees. If the DCCC tells them to stay away from the Congressional Pay Raise issue, many will be tempted to do so, regardless of the interests of their candidates and those of us who want to see a Democratic majority.

It will be one of the first questions I ask Democratic challengers and their consultants. And the DCCC.

Comments

[Phillystan]

Roger, you missed a big point about the PA pay raise and voter anger. The problem in PA wasn't necessarily the raise. It was the fact that the raise was done in a way that circumvented state law. Pa's law requires a pay raise to be passed for the next legislative session. Rather than pass a raise that would go into effect in Jan. 07, the legislature gave members and judges an increase in "undocumented expenses." People were rightfully angered by this insultingly transparent backdoor pay raise. Congressional COLA's, on the other hand have a long history. Every challenger who ever ran for office campaigned against them and incumbents remained prohibitive favorites.

Congressional Democrats have been unceasing in their efforts to raise the minimum wage. Maybe instead of holding their feet to the fire on COLA's, labor should stop giving to GOP candidates who only vote with workers a minority of the time and vote for the anti-worker congressional leadership that stops the minimum wage bill every time.