Government Affairs News

The historic election of Barack Obama and significant Democratic gains in both the Senate and House of Representatives leaves Merit-Shop contractors and many national business interests wondering what's next. The business community has seen evidence in the form of written communications from Obama that some of his first initiatives will be to support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA/card-check) and require project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on all Federal construction.
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While Californians voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama (61% - 37%), Democratic political strategists were unable to convert this into substantial gains in either the California House delegation, State Senate or State Assembly.

House of Representatives
Democrats had hoped to pick up as many as four seats (CD 4, CD 45, CD 46 & CD 50), but with only one race undecided, the California delegation appears to be unchanged.
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Proposition 11
While many absentee and provisional ballots are yet to be counted, Proposition 11 which takes away the Legislature’s ability to draw their own districts is leading 50.6% to 49.4%

Overall Spending
While most Democrats are rejoicing over the election, State party leaders must be asking themselves why they didn’t do better in California. Not only did the fail to stop Prop 11, they failed to drastically change the makeup of the Legislature despite spending over $25 million in the nine key races, fully 25% more than was spent to support business-friendly candidates in these races.
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