Why Didn’t the Iowa Poll Ask About Labor Issues?

Some additional thoughts about the Iowa Poll findings that were released on Monday.  The Des Moines Register asked about driving and texting (which is a bad thing to do at the same time), gay marriage, puppy mills, gun control, payday loans, and gambling to determine what issues deserve the Iowa General Assembly’s time.  The Register made a big deal about gay marriage, but I’ve said they are asking the wrong question.  One issue missing from this poll is to ask Iowans about whether the General Assembly should spend time on labor issues.  Why is that?  Fair Share is on the agenda this year.  We have already seen a bill get out of committee last week, and yesterday we had a prevailing wage bill get passed out of the House Labor Committee.  Yet the Iowa Poll so far hasn’t asked Iowans how they feel about labor.

The Iowa Republican has and found that 61% of Iowans oppose the labor agenda:

While it’s easy to see why Iowa Democrats might feel the need to make sure the state’s largest unions are happy and motivated leading up to Election Day, the public overwhelmingly opposes these labor bills. The most recent TIR/Concordia Group poll, shows that 61% of those surveyed would be more likely to vote against Governor Culver if he supported a bill that would end Iowa’s right to work laws.

The TIR/Concordia Group poll shows that public opposition to the union agenda has actually grown in that last seven months. In July of 2009, 50% of those surveyed would be more likely to vote against Governor Culver if he supported a bill that would end Iowa’s right to work laws. Since then, the number has jumped 11 points.

In 2007, a Wall Street Journal editorial said, “If the Iowa legislature wanted to chase jobs and employers out of the state, they couldn’t come up with a better plan than undermining right to work.” Regardless of public sentiment, Iowa Democrats seem willing to move forward with the labor union agenda.

This isn’t even a question of whether people are in favor of the Legislature spending their time on these bills – this is about whether the majority of Iowans even support this type of legislation, and the answer is a resounding no.  But yet Democrats want to ramrod legislation through.  So when they point to the Iowa Poll and say that they are spending time on issues that Iowans care about wouldn’t it be consistent to drop the labor bills currently on the table?

I mean Iowa Speaker of the House, Pat Murphy, after the marriage amendment was killed in the House he said that they “needed to focus on jobs.”

Then why are you focusing on labor bills?

Update: Apparently Legislative Democrats also have time to discuss allowing Iowa Breweries to be able to make and sell higher-alcohol beers.  At least this could create more jobs by getting government out of the way.

Cheers.