Pennsylvania GOP Governor Now Paying the Price For Big Labor Appeasement

Gov. Tom Corbett’s approval rating reaches all-time … – PennLive.com

Pennsylvania GOP Gov. Tom Corbett's decision early in his term to avoid confronting state and local government union bosses' monopoly privileges isn't looking very politically smart right now.

Now that a clear majority of Wisconsin voters have rejected Big Labor’s scheme to oust Republican Gov. Scott Walker from office, less than halfway through his term, for successfully backing a rollback of government union bosses’ monopoly-bargaining power in early 2011, it seems appropriate to take a look at how some other GOP chief executives who opted to steer clear of a major confrontation with the union hierarchy are now faring politically.

Last year, Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett was one of a handful of Republican governors who publicly sought to distance themselves from Mr. Walker’s approach. Mr. Corbett and his spokesmen made it clear they didn’t think the way to address their state’s considerable budget problems was to revoke government union chiefs’ license to get public servants fired for refusal to join or financially support a union and limit the scope of other government union special privileges. (See, for example, the first link above.)

As union-label Badger State politicians, union operatives, and union militants fomented Madison chaos in response to Mr. Walker’s Act, 10, the governor’s approval rating sank, and establishment pundits rushed to the conclusion that Mr. Corbett’s path of Big Labor appeasement was the wiser approach.

But now that Act 10 has been in effect for roughly a year, Wisconsin’s economy and its budget outlook are much improved, and the political climate is becoming far calmer. A number of union-label Democratic officials even agreed to attend a brat roast hosted by Mr. Walker the other day.

Meanwhile, union-label Democrats in the Keystone State show no sign of being “grateful†for Mr. Corbett’s appeasement of government union bigwigs. Instead, he now faces “unrelenting Democratic criticism of his spending cuts in education and social services.†(See the second link above.) The governor is even becoming less popular among rank-and-file Republicans. According to a Quinnipac poll released yesterday, 36% of voters approve of the job Mr. Corbett is doing, while 47% disapprove.