Big Labor Keeping An Eye On Their Boy Frank Kratovil
One of the things that fascinates me most about writing for a blog is where your readers come from. One of the analytics packages that Delmarva Dealings subscribes to gives me a nice GoogleMaps mashup with markers of where the last 100 or so readers came from. It’s gratifying to see that you have someone in Lithuania, Ireland, South Africa, or Australia reading what you write from Salisbury, MD. When you see that our service people are checking in from Iraq, Germany, or Afghanistan you feel honored. It’s even more interesting to see where some of your American readers are coming from.
Recently I’ve noticed that I have readers in Pittsburgh. Given that the only person that I know there is the Episcopal Bishop, Bob Duncan (and he’s away at the Lambeth Conference), I was curious as to who might be interested in what I have to say there (Bob sure never shared my politics). The readers are coming from the offices of the United Steelworkers of America.
Why would a union be interested in what I have to say? They only seem to be interested in what I have to say about Democrat congressional candidate Frank Kratovil. I’ve noticed the same with the NEA and some of the state teachers’ unions; but at least they also read my rants on other education issues.
But wait! I thought Kratovil was a moderate-conservative Democrat? I thought Kratovil was independent? No tool of the special interests he.
Let’s just wait until the next financial disclosure. The next time that Kratovil or his shills in the media mention the Club for Growth (which is money from small, average donors), ask yourself who is diving deep into the liberal, special interest cesspool.
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Comments
I didn’t say that Kratovil was supported by steelworkers and teachers. I said that he was supported by their unions.
Before you do additional harm to yourself, please don’t argue that the NEA and the Steelworkers represent their members’ political views. If that were the case, why have unions violently fought legislation to allow members the right to hold back dues money from Democrat political activity?
And you believe that teachers and steelworkers should support the policies of Andy Harris? Are you at all familiar with his record on labor issues? Harris has consistently voted in favor of large corporations and against those that work for them. Harris has voted against extending health care to workers. Harris has repeatedly voted against increasing the minimum wage of these workers even though the cost of food, gas and medicine have sky rocketed. And as far as Education issues go Andy has one of the worst records in the General Assembly. Harris was the ONLY member (Democrat or Republican) of the general assembly to vote against reducing class room sizes in public schools. I would rather have my candidate endorsed by educators and blue collar workers than by extremist right-wing think tanks.
Did these visitors reach your site by searching on the term “Frank Kratovil”, or were they perhaps searching for “NEA” or “Teamsters” or “UAW” which would also lead them to your blog. My guess would be that the visitors you refer to have no idea who Frank Kratovil is.
ShoreThings -
No. They are coming in either through a Google search for Kratovil or accessing a post by clicking “Frank Kratovil” in the tag cloud. The same analytics package that provides me the map of the last 100 or so visitors shows me their server name, IP, ISP, the link that brought them to “Delmarva Dealings” (referring URL), the page that where they landed on “Delmarva Dealings” (i.e. “Bigots for Kratovil”) and what page they left.
It’s not unusual for groups like NEA, Steelworkers, DNC, etc. to have people who spend their time searching the net and flagging posts, sites, or articles of interest. This is no different than the pre-net days when they would subscribe to umpteen newspapers and cut articles or subscribe to a clippings service.
In the case of the NEA (and their satellites) I see traffic from things I write about education and about Kratovil. The Steelworkers were the first industrial union I had noticed in a while. However, I can only see this detailed information on the last 100 or so visitors. Since I don’t have time to check this a couple of times an hour there could be others.
PF -
You’re preaching to the wrong choir. While I support the right to organize, I am also a staunch advocate of right to work laws. Most, if not all, of your other complaints are specious.
The only purpose a minimum wage law serves today is to give unions an artificial benchmark in negotiations. How many employers in this country can actually hire people at minimum wage? Damn few. There would be fewer if Democrats and the U.S. Chamber wing of the GOP were serious about enforcing our country’s immigration laws. Next you’ll be arguing that illegal immigration (and the corresponding non-enforcement) doesn’t depress the nation’s prevailing wage rates.
You should be more specific with your healthcare claim; but it really doesn’t matter. Healthcare is not a constitutional right, despite lefty arguments to the contrary.
Same with class size. Typical pablum from the NEA and its acolytes. I’ve seen convincing studies done in Britain during the late ’80’s and ’90’s which showed great results from competitive school choice that resulted in much larger class size in the highest performing schools. Why? Because parents were willing to sacrifice smaller class size to put their kids in schools with better teachers and better performance. The NEA and university ed schools all hawk smaller class size because smaller class size equals more teachers. More teachers equals more revenue for both the NEA and ed schools.
Are you suggesting it is a bad thing that Frank Kratovil is supported by steel workers and teachers?