Democratic Talk Radio Blog

Impact of Fair Trade Messaging on Election Results in the 2006 Cycle

Candidates running ads demanding new trade policy — and rejecting the failed NAFTA model — made unprecedented gains over candidates running on a status quo “free trade” platform.
Trade impact results from the 2006 election:

House races where fair traders beat anti-fair trader incumbents: 19

Senate races where fair traders beat anti-fair trader incumbents: 6

House races where fair traders took open seats vacated by retiring anti-fair traders: 11

Senate races where fair traders took open seats vacated by retiring anti-fair traders: 1

House races where anti-fair traders replaced fair trade incumbents: 0

Senate races where anti-fair traders replaced fair trade incumbents: 0

House races where anti-fair traders took open seats vacated by retiring fair traders: 0

Senate races where anti-fair traders took open seats vacated by retiring fair traders: 0

Highlights

Senate: Trade was a top and winning issue in campaigns that tilted Senate towards Democratic control:

Missouri: Claire McCaskill (D) vs. incumbent Jim Talent (R)
Montana: Jon Tester (D) vs. incumbent Conrad Burns (R)
Ohio: Sherrod Brown (D) vs. incumbent Mike DeWine (R)
Pennsylvania: Bob Casey, Jr. (D) vs. incumbent Rick Santorum (R)
Rhode Island: Sheldon Whitehouse (D) vs. incumbent Lincoln Chafee (R)
Virginia: Jim Webb (D) vs. incumbent George Allen (R)
Plus: Vermont: Bernie Sanders (I) defeats Rich Tarrant (R), taking anti-fair trader Jim Jeffords’ open seat

House Campaigns where trade was a top and winning issue (select examples):

California’s 11th: Jerry McNerney (D) vs. incumbent Richard Pombo (R)
Connecticut’s 5th: Chris Murphy (D) vs. incumbent Nancy Johnson (R)
Georgia’s 8th: Incumbent John Barrow (D) vs. Max Burns (R)
Indiana’s 2nd: Joe Donnelly (D) vs. incumbent Chris Chocola (R)
Iowa 1st: Bruce Braley (D) vs. Mike Whalen (Nussle open seat)
Iowa’s 2nd: Dave Loebsack (D) vs. incumbent Jim Leach (R)
Pennsylvania’s 8th: Patrick Murphy (D) vs. incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick (R)
Wisconsin’s 8th: Steve Kagen (D) vs. John Gard (R) (Green open seat)

Winning campaigns running paid ads on trade (select examples):

Indiana’s 8th: Brad Ellsworth (D) vs. incumbent John Hostettler (R)
Kentucky’s 3rd: John Yarmuth (D) vs. incumbent Anne Northup (R)
North Carolina’s 11th: Heath Shuler (D) vs. incumbent Charles Taylor (R)
Ohio’s 6th: Charlie Wilson (D) vs. Chuck Blasdel (R) (Strickland open seat)
Ohio’s 18th: Zack Space (D) vs. Joy Padgett (R) (Ney open seat)
The Brown, Casey, Sanders and Debbie Stabenow (Michigan incumbent) Senate campaigns
The Barrow and Braley House campaigns, and at least three others

Research and analysis performed by the nonpartisan Public Citizens Global Trade Watch Division. You can view the full GTW report, “No to Staying the Course on Trade” at http://www.citizen.org/trade/politics/articles.cfm?ID=17705

Citizens Trade PAC | Citizens Trade Campaign has established a political action committee (PAC) to help elect Congressional candidates who want to reverse our disastrous NAFTA-style trade policy and shape one that protects workers, family farmers, the environment and our democracy. More at http://www.citizenstrade.org/political-action.php

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Democratic Politics, Trade Policy, Republican. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.