ALG Editor’s Note: In a letter to former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, current DNC Chairman, ALG responded to a Politico story reporting that the Democratic National Committee had a key role in organizing the Wisconsin public sector union protests of Governor Scott Walker’s proposal for public employees pay a portion of their own pension and health care obligations. Politico’s Ben Smith reports:
By Ben Smith
DNC chair Tim Kaine, in the midst of weighing a Virginia Senate race, finds himself in an awkward position over collective bargaining — as political foes use the DNC’s support of the pro-union rallies in Wisconsin to paint Kaine as too close to organized labor and likely to bring public sector unionism to Virginia
Virginia has no collective bargaining for state employees — a fact that Americans for Limited Government’s president William Wilson highlighted in a letter to Kaine today.
“The ultimate irony is that the DNC’s reported support for the Wisconsin public employee union protest is occurring as you are reportedly meeting with Obama to discuss your potential run for U.S. Senate,” wrote Wilson in the letter. “While I am certain that you will garner the support of the public employee unions, who have effectively used massive campaign donations to ensure that their pay is about twice as much as their counterparts in the private sector. I am equally certain that running as the proven big government candidate who is the picket of the public employee unions in Virginia will prove to be politically disastrous.”