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Legislation & Politics, In the States Jul 24

Mass. Governor to Low-Wage Workers: Tough Luck

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) hit the state’s low-wage workers directly in the wallet July 21 when he rejected a minimum wage bill that won unanimous approval from the state legislature.

The bill would have increased the state’s minimum wage from $6.75 an hour to $8 in two steps. Romney sent the bill back to the legislature and proposed a miserly 25-cent an hour increase in the Bay State’s minimum wage, last raised seven years ago.

Because Romney did not technically veto the measure, the legislature either can accept his proposal or return the $8 an hour measure to the governor, in which case he would have 10 days to sign or veto it.

Following Romney’s move, state Rep. James Marzilli (D) said:

Four years ago, Mitt Romney promised voters of Massachusetts that he would immediately increase the minimum wage to almost $7 an hour and index it to inflation. I expect the House and Senate will reject his dishonesty.

In a scathing statement, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes called Romney’s action “deplorable” and “insulting.”

It is deplorable that Governor Romney would belittle hard-working people by putting forth his paltry and insulting increase. It also represents his latest flip-flop, proving he’ll say anything to get elected and then just do the opposite to cater to his financial right-wing tennis buddies. He promised indexing the minimum wage during his campaign, and the Legislature’s raise at least provides an increase over the next few years. Contrary to what he promised in his campaign, Governor Romney’s minimum wage bill is just a one-time joke of a raise with no guarantee of any future raises. If it wasn’t so insulting, the idea of a one-time quarter raise for hard-working people would be laughable.

The federal minimum wage has not been raised in a decade, and Massachusetts is one of 19 states where the AFL-CIO America Needs a Raise campaign has mobilized to win minimum wage increases through legislation or ballot initiatives.

Find out more here about how union activists are working to raise the minimum wage in their states.

by Mike Hall

Iraq announces peace plan, refuses foreign interference

by Paul Schemm

Sat Jul 22, 12:29 PM ET

Iraq held the first meeting of a homegrown peace initiative, with the country's top leaders vowing to reconcile the warring factions amid protests over US meddling.

"This is an Iraqi initiative for those who are part of the political process," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told reporters, while the speaker of parliament urged US-led coalition forces not to interfere.

Maliki said Saturday the Supreme Committee for National Reconciliation had already received positive signals from some of the insurgent groups battling security forces and US troops, including one led by a former army officer.

Parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani, a conservative Sunni Islamist, said the committee would work to persuade groups which have opposed the political process to lay down their arms.

"We will contact those who oppose us on certain issues and will try to convince them and tell them the detail of the project to win their consent," he said, standing alongside Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

Soon after the announcement seven Shiite construction workers were gunned down in a Sunni neighborhood of west Baghdad.

Separately, US troops in Musayyib, south of Baghdad, fired back on ambushers armed with automatic weapons and rocket launchers, killing 14 of them, a US spokesman said.

Maliki's government and the coalition have been struggling to contain a wave of sectarian violence in which rival Shiite and Sunni death squads have killed hundreds of civilians around the capital in the past month.

With a month-old security operation apparently making little headway, Iraqi leaders hope the reconciliation committee will draw in those groups prepared to compromise, while isolating violent extremists.

Those who oppose his government's policies are free to do so, the prime minister said, but those who reject the peace process in favor of violence would be "pushed into a corner".

The government announced the reconciliation program on June 25 in response to increasing violence, which has been fueled in part by extremist militant groups aiming to provoke a full-out civil war.

"I don't think Al-Qaeda has been successful in its objective, but I admit there are cracks in national unity," said National Security Advisor Ahmed al-Rubaie.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) opened a conference on transitional justice and national reconciliation meant to support the government efforts.

But parliament speaker Mashhadani ruffled feathers when he gave a combative opening address in which he blamed many of Iraq's problems on US forces, and called for foreigners to end their interference.

"Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be alright," he said, addressing coalition forces.

"What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people," he said in a long speech that criticized the tactics of the coalition forces in Iraq and US support for Israeli strikes against Lebanon.

Mashhadani bluntly told his audience of UN officials, foreign experts, politicians and civil society representatives that Iraqis had little use for advice on running their country or foreign-sponsored conferences.

"What we need is reconciliation between Iraqis only -- there can be no third party," he said.

UN representatives were quick to emphasize that the world body was there to advise and offer examples from other countries in transition, rather than to dictate policy.

In addition to the seven construction workers killed in Baghdad, eight other Iraqis, all but one of them members of the security forces, died in attacks around the country Saturday. The bodies of 12 murder victims were also found.

Two rockets also hit the heavily-fortified Green Zone, the seat of US and government power in the capital, but there were no initial damage reports.

The Harris Poll^®57, July 20, 2006

Democrats Increase Lead over Republicans in Race for Congress

Mood of the nation still favors challenger campaigns

With mid-term elections now less than four months away, a new Harris Poll finds that Democrats have widened their lead over the Republicans in the race for control of Congress. Results show that if the election for Congress were held today, more than two in five (44%) adults would vote for the Democratic candidate, while about one-third (31%) would vote for the Republican candidate, 17 percent would vote for someone else, and just seven percent are undecided.

These are results from the latest Harris Poll of 1,002 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between July 7 and 10, 2006 by Harris Interactive^®.

Other interesting findings regarding the congressional ballot include:

With a margin of 13 percentage points, the Democrats’ lead over the Republicans has increased from a four-point lead in April and 11-point lead in January.
The Democrats lead among nearly every demographic subgroup examined. The lone exception is college graduates (37% Republican, 34% Democrat, and 21% other), where they are essentially tied with Republicans. The Republican candidate for Congress also faces difficulty among some traditionally supportive groups such as men (33% Republican, 43% Democrat), married adults (35% Republican, 40% Democrat), and more affluent adults (those with a household income of $60K or more: 37% Republican, 43% Democrat).
Another issue facing the Republican Party lies with support among conservatives (48% would vote for the Republican candidate, 32% Democratic candidate, and 15% another candidate) and moderates (25% Republican, 50% Democrat, and 18% other), two important segments of their coalition. On the other hand, a Democratic candidate currently draws 68 percent of the liberal vote compared to 13 percent for Republicans and 12 percent for another candidate.
The Democratic candidate appears to garner slightly stronger support among its base than does the Republican candidate (86% of Democrats would support their candidate vs. 82% of Republicans would support their candidate).
True to their label, Independents show no real preference with 35 percent supporting the Democrat, 25 percent the Republican, and 30 percent another candidate.

Right direction or wrong track

The mood of the nation is essentially unchanged since our last Harris Poll. Currently, 28 percent of U.S. adults think that things are going in the right direction while 61 percent believe the country has gotten off on the wrong track. In June the figures were 28 percent right direction and 64 percent wrong track. Generally speaking, when a majority of adults believe things are on the wrong track they are more likely to consider challengers to incumbent officeholders in elections. Combined with the voter preference for Congress, continued negative mood about the nation could put Republican control of Congress in question.

Presidential ratings

President Bush’s job approval rating is only marginally better than it was a month ago. Two-thirds of U.S. adults still have a negative view of the President’s job performance (65%) while 34 percent are positive. This compares to 67 percent negative and 33 percent positive in June. A majority of adults across demographic subgroups have a negative opinion of the president’s job handling.

The president still has some problems with his base supporters. While his job standing has improved among Republicans, rising from 68 percent in June to 74 percent currently, he is not faring as well among conservatives. Slightly less than half of self-identified conservative adults have a positive impression of President Bush’s job handling (46%).

Important issues

Concern about the war in Iraq continues to dominate the issue agenda and is the only issue which shows a significant increase in mentions. Concern about the war now stands at 32 percent, up from 27 percent last month. Mentions of the economy (15%) and immigration (13%) form a second tier of important issues for the government to address. New to the list this month is concern about North Korea (2%), which could be a result of the missile testing by that country just before the survey was conducted.

TABLE 1

PRESIDENT BUSH'S OVERALL JOB RATING

(Excludes Not Sure Responses)

"How would you rate the overall job President George W. Bush is doing as president – excellent, pretty good, only fair, or poor?"

Base: All Adults

	TREND		Positive*	Negative**
2006	July	%	34	65
	June	%	33	67
	May	%	29	71
	April	%	35	63
	March	%	36	64
	February	%	40	58
	January	%	43	56
2005	November	%	34	65
	August	%	40	58
	June	%	45	55
	April	%	44	56
	February	%	48	51
2004	November	%	50	49
	October	%	51	49
	September	%	45	54
	August	%	48	51
	June	%	50	49
	April	%	48	51
	February	%	51	48
2003	December	%	50	49
	October	%	59	40
	August	%	57	41
	June	%	61	36
	April	%	70	29
	February	%	52	46
2002	December	%	64	35
	November	%	65	33
	October	%	64	35
	September	%	68	30
	August	%	63	37
	July	%	62	37
	June	%	70	28
	May	%	74	25
	April	%	75	23
	March	%	77	22
	February	%	79	20
	January	%	79	19
2001	December	%	82	17
	November	%	86	12
	October	%	88	11
	August	%	52	43
	July	%	56	39
	June	%	50	46
	May	%	59	35
	March	%	49	38
	February	%	56	26

*Positive = excellent or pretty good.

**Negative = only fair or poor.

TABLE 2

PRESIDENT JOB RATING - BY PARTY ID

(Positive* Ratings)

"How would you rate the overall job President George W.Bush is doing as president?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Party ID
	Total	Republican	Independent	Democrat
	%	%	%	%
July	34	74	23	14
June	33	68	27	14
May	29	67	19	10

*Positive = excellent or pretty good.

TABLE 3

PRESIDENT JOB RATING - BY POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

(Positive* Ratings)

"How would you rate the overall job President George W.Bush is doing as president?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Political Philosophy
	Total	Conservative	Moderate	Liberal
	%	%	%	%
July	34	46	29	21
June	33	55	28	13
May	29	46	24	10

*Positive = excellent or pretty good.

TABLE 4

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

TREND		Republican	Democrat	Other+	*Undecided+**
July	%	31	44	17	7
April	%	37	41	15	6
January	%	34	43	14	9

*Undecided = No preference/don’t know/refused

+Volunteered response

TABLE 5

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS – BY PARTY ID

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Party ID
	Total	Republican	Independent	Democrat
	%	%	%	%
Republican	31	82	25	3
Democrat	44	5	35	86
Other+	17	7	30	9

+Volunteered response

TABLE 6

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS – BY IDEOLOGY

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Political Philosophy
	Total	Conservative	Moderate	Liberal
	%	%	%	%
Republican	31	48	25	13
Democrat	44	32	50	68
Other+	17	15	18	12

+Volunteered response

TABLE 7

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS – BY EDUCATION

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Highest Level of Education
	Total	Some College or Less	College Graduate	At Least Some Post-Graduate
	%	%	%	%
Republican	31	29	37	37
Democrat	44	47	34	44
Other+	17	16	21	16

+Volunteered response

TABLE 8

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS – BY SEX

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Sex
	Total	Male	Female
	%	%	%
Republican	31	33	30
Democrat	44	43	46
Other+	17	17	16

+Volunteered response

TABLE 9

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS – BY MARITAL STATUS

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Marital Status
	Total	Married	Single	Divorced/ Separated	Widowed
	%	%	%	%	%
Republican	31	35	28	28	13
Democrat	44	40	51	53	64
Other+	17	17	15	20	13

+Volunteered response

TABLE 10

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION RESULTS – BY HOUSEHOLD INCOME

"If the election for Congress were being held today,would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democraticcandidate?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Household Income
	Total	Less than $30K	$30k to $60k	$60k+
	%	%	%	%
Republican	31	27	23	37
Democrat	44	49	27	43
Other+	17	16	9	17

+Volunteered response

TABLE 11

RIGHT DIRECTION OR WRONG TRACK

(Excludes No Opinion, Not Sure and Decline to AnswerResponses)

"Generally speaking, would you say things in the countryare going in the right direction or have they prettyseriously gotten off on the wrong track?"

Base: All Adults

	TREND		Right Direction	Wrong Track
2006	July	%	28	61
	June	%	28	64
	May	%	24	69
	April	%	27	65
	March	%	31	60
	February	%	32	59
	January	%	33	54
2005	November	%	27	68
	August	%	37	59
	June	%	38	55
	January	%	46	48
2004	September	%	38	57
	June	%	35	59
2003	December	%	35	57
	June	%	44	51
2002	December	%	36	57
	June	%	46	48
2001	December	%	65	32
	June	%	43	52
	January	%	46	39
2000	October	%	50	41
	June	%	40	51
	January	%	50	38
1999	June	%	37	55
	March	%	47	45
1998	December	%	43	51
	June	%	48	44
1997	December	%	39	56
	April	%	36	55
1996	December	%	38	50
	June	%	29	64
1995	December	%	26	62
	June	%	24	65
1994	December	%	29	63
	June	%	28	65

TABLE 12

MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES FOR GOVERNMENT to address

(Spontaneous, Unprompted Replies)

"What do you think are the two most important issues for the government to address?"

Base: All Adults

‘95

‘96

‘97