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Mich. Gov. Snyder’s Popularity Plummets on Right to Work

 

December 21, 2012

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Anyone who believes in the power of intuition can draw inspiration from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Last year, as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker launched his war on public worker collective bargaining, Snyder, newly-elected, said such an effort would be “too divisive” to duplicate in his state.

 

Last week, Snyder cast aside that insight and signed into law a right-to-work bill that was speedily passed by the Republican-dominated lameduck legislature before more Democrats take their seats in the next session as a result of November’s elections.

A blog posting on Michigan Live establishes that, Snyder—if he wants a political future—should have gone with his first hunch. A survey conducted days after the right-to-work bill’s signing found Snyder’s popularity plummeting, leaving him polling behind any one of four Democratic candidates suggested as possible opponents if he chooses to run for re-election in 2014.

Automated phone calls to 650 registered voters by Public Policy Polling also revealed that Snyder’s job approval rating had dropped from 47 percent before right-to-work’s passage to 38 percent with 56 percent of voters disapproving of his performance.

Fifty-one percent of voters polled oppose the right-to-work law. The polling dug even deeper into attitudes toward unions. Michigan Live reports:

A majority of respondents, 52 percent, say they have a favorable opinion of unions; 33 percent have an unfavorable opinion; and 15 percent are unsure.

Passage of a right-to-work law in Michigan, a traditionally strong union state, has led to unprecedented national discussion on whether such legislation would help to create jobs, as its sponsors claim, or simply lowers the standards for wages and benefits in states, as unions and progressive thinktanks contend.

Every Democrat in the Michigan House and Senate voted against the bill. But they were joined by four Republican state senators and six Republican state representatives.

Republican Rep. Ed McBroom, a Tea Party member, voted against the legislation. He said some employers called him before the vote on right to work advising him that they had productive relationships with unions and thought the legislation was a mistake.

 

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user TFHall313