Soccer Dad: I thought that o'malley was getting rid of special interests

November 19, 2006

I thought that o'malley was getting rid of special interests

In his commercials targeting Gov. Ehrlich, Gov. elect Martin O'Malley hit the governor for his support of special or corporate interests. I was intrigued by this bit I read about O'Malley's transition team.

Featured on the panel are current or former officials with three powerful unions that backed O'Malley's gubernatorial bid but have met a cold reception from the executive branch during Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's tenure: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Service Employees International Union Local 1199 and the Maryland State Teachers Association.
The labor groups were visible supporters of the mayor's campaign, providing him with well-funded get-out-the vote efforts that contributed to O'Malley's surprisingly large 7-percentage-point victory last week. Many polls and pundits had been predicting a tight race.

Union members hope the new administration is sympathetic to their goals. The service union is pushing to restore a law that requires large employers - notably Wal-Mart - to spend more on employee health care. Teachers want pension improvements.

Well union members need not worry about O'Malley's support fort he Wal-mart bill. He and fellow candidate Doug Duncan both tried to score political points against Gov. Ehrlich by declaring that they'd have signed the bill that Ehrlich vetoed. In doing so both demonstrated their ignorance of economics.

Of course there's also the question of how O'Malley can criticize Gov. Ehrlich for being too close to special interests, when he himself owes unions - special interests by another name - big time, and is apparently in lockstep with their priorities?

Technorati tags: Martin O'Malley, Unions.