Business-Labor Hope to Broker Deal, Helps Udall

Meetings this past week between business and union leaders on how to deal with an extensive battery of ballot initiatives appear to be yielding promising results.

As Salazar arrived at his office on 15th Street, he told the Rocky he expected a formal agreement "by next week." He declined to elaborate. "We're working on it," Salazar said. The latest offer that sources say is on the table: businesses would kick in about $5 million to help fight three measures unions are trying to defeat [...] In exchange, unions would pull four measures that businesses would otherwise have spent money fighting until Election Day on Nov. 4.

The measures in question include 3 anti-union amendments--they are 47, 49, and 54--as well as the 3 pro-union ballot initiatives 53, 55, and 56. This is an important development in what was shaping up to be a business/labor bloodbath in November no matter which way you cut it.

As johne over at SquareState points out,

Just like with Ref C and D we have unions and business working together while there's a far fringe element in Jake Jabbs, the Coors family, and the Independence Institute who are hell-bent in remaking this state in their conservative self-image.

My bet is that if this deal goes through it will take much of the wind out of the sails of anti-union activists that have been pounding Udall for months on his traditionally pro-labor stances such as his support for the Employee Free Choice Act. This will likely help Udall come election day for a couple reasons.

1. On an ideological level, it will demonstrate that strong unions and strong business are not mutually exclusive phenomena, and that their issues can be worked out without the strong hand approach of the GOP, hopefully making it easier for some independents to warm up to Mark.

2. More importantly, ballot measures like these traditionally help get-out-the-vote of conservative activists. Their not being on the ballot might mean that anti-union activists otherwise ambivalent about the Republican candidate won't get to the polls. A similar phenomenon has been seen in other states with anti-choice initiatives on the ballot.

Side Note: it also means that the millions of dollars spent by republican 527s running anti-union ads were wasted, which just makes me feel sorta warm and fuzzy inside.