Matt Jacobson: the First Flip Flop?

Interesting.

Jacobsen is a light weight with no idea how to run a campaign.

Now that we know he is already sucking up to the State's most powerful union, we should all think hard about just what type of Governor he will be.

Jacobsen is a light weight with no idea how to run a campaign.

So, what you're saying is he is an unseasoned pol. Sounds like an endorsement to me.

Maybe I should clarify...

For a person running in a Republican primary to address the SEIU at their annual meeting is completely foolish. Clearly, he is out-of-touch with the Republican party. If he is making these type of appearances a hallmark of his primary campaign, then, undoubtedly, he is a lightweight.

Perhaps it will appear on YouTube... I'd love to hear what he said to that gang.

Matt agrees to speak to the Maine SEIU, but refuses to attend the Portland Republican City Committee candidates night. This along with his donations to democrats should ends his campaign. Maine Republicans should beware!

I think Matt is channeling Jack Kemp. Kemp. you may recall, was always looking for unconventional venues to pitch his message of growth and opportunity to.

Then again, maybe he Machiavellian. A plus either way in my book.

OOB - that dog don't hunt. Google Jacobson and I find that he's been talking about smaller government and he's actually been creating jobs lately. And he's on the advisory board of the Maine Heritage foundation and the Portland chamber who all support TABOR. Hardly RINO behavior. So he spoke to unions today after he repeated his support for TABOR. Something tells me he didn't flip flop on anything while he was there. Hopefully we will get a report or video. Move along folks, nothing to see here except some flamethrowing by OOB.

BTW OOB, when I google Bruce Poliquin who you claim is a conservative, it says that he was on the on the boards of the Natural Resource Council of Maine and the North Yarmouth academy. Looking at their boards shows a propensity of individuals who are anything but conservative. Want to check who they give their political donations to? The mission and press releases of the natural resources group are instructive as they seem to be a pretty radical left environmental group.

Looks like you got your RINOs and conservatives reversed.

Let me get this straight: You're going on not what Jacobson has said, but the very fact that he's speaking to SEIU? He's a candidate. They're voters. Speaking to voters is what candidates do, isn't it?

This was a 1-hour reception where each candidate was apparently invited to simply speak for 3-5 minutes. As far as I know, there were at least 8 candidates there.

Matt is the only guy in the race who has worked with unions (at 2 different railroads). He cut costs, created efficiency, and delivered more production. He has proved that it is possible and that he knows how to do it.

I think it's a smart move to talk to them. They're not going anywhere, and they might as well hear from him what his thoughts are.

From his FB profile: "Had a frank and honest talk with MSEA-SEIU. It's the taxpayers' money. We will spend less and be efficient. Private sector jobs will grow."

I wonder how many Republican primary voters were at the reception?

I would like to see what he actually said.

Attending the MSEA convention, to me, is like a GOP candidate starting to attend Democrat Party meetings. The Democrats aren't going away either, but that doesn't mean GOP candidates should be aiming their primary campaigns to Democrat party activists.

The MSEA is not just any union. It is a wing of the Maine Democrat Party.

Or maybe the party is a wing of the MSEA.

So Matt went in and talked with the State Employees' union.
Big deal! If that's your criticism of Jacobson, it ain't much!

The reality of being governor is knowing how to deal with these folks,
because the next Governor of Maine MUST do some extensive dealing
with these same union guys; as they re-re-re-renegotiate the idiotic
let-them-run-wild-in-the-freakin'-candy-store arrangements of today!

In fact, Jacobson is probably the only candidate who has actually had any
experience negotiating with unions, which happened when he was with the
railroad. And he got those tough hombres to increase efficiency!

I saw the video of Matt talking about TABOR, and it's obvious from his
business development experience that he knows all too well that Maine's
high spending and high taxes have us in a deep, DEEP hole when it comes
to getting good companies to even consider a move to Maine... So of
course he supports TABOR. Who doesn't?

It's the rare Republican who is not in favor of the common sense
found in TABOR. (Not sure what happened to Katx on that one!)

That video of the TABOR event is on YouTube.

Click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qauDwBu_-as

Matt Jacobson has experience working with unions.....he says so in his campaign speeches. He not only supports TABOR II he supported TABOR I .

This is a non issue.

After reading some of the anti-union posts from union memebers on other threads I have no problem with Matt talking to them. All union members are not liberals, what he said is more important than who he said it to.

Dan has nailed it with that last line, "Or maybe the party is a wing of the MSEA."
Just take look at their website and see for yourself, http://www.mseaseiu.org.

He's not just "talking" to the most anti-TABOR group in the state. They contributed $500,000 to defeat Question 4. It sends a message that he supports, or at least doesn't have a problem with, their position. Could he not wait until AFTER the election? Does he have to appear at their Annual Convention?

He's also having a fundraiser hosted by a vocal anti-TABOR leader. Once is a mistake. Twice is a trend.

I grew up in a union family. The Teamsters made endorsements every year. They handed my dad a list of issues and candidates for whom he was supposed to vote. He did not. He voted how he thought he should vote. My dad was a decent and smart man, but I doubt that he was the ONLY union member in the history of the world to make up his own mind!

Perhaps he appeared at their annual convention because that's when he was invited and that's when his opponents spoke.

Why on EARTH would a candidate want to campaign in front of ANY group of voters AFTER the election? I'm baffled by your stance and by your implication that giving a 5-minute speech to a group is somehow flip-flopping. Perhaps he said something in that short speech that you see as flip-flopping.

Jacobson publicly supported TABOR I in 2006. I see that he is publicly supporting TABOR II now. Are you suggesting that he is publicly supporting something he secretly hopes will fail?

Have you ever run for office? Do you really believe that it is an effective strategy to ignore a group of people because the leadership of that group doesn't agree with you? Because that doesn't sound like a good strategy to me.

I can't figure out if you really don't get it or if you have another horse in this race. You want to explain which it is? Or if it's some other reason you're attacking a candidate for campaigning?

OOB, do expect him to preach to the choir all the time or go out and try and change peoples minds? I would like to know what he said.

Some rank and file MSEA members may vote Republican, but those showing up at the convention are going to be the hardcore union thugs.

Right now, Jacobsen is running for the GOP nomination. Does anyone really think he saw many GOP primary voters at the covention?

As for ignoring groups, I think it is OK to ignore those people who fund the opposition's campaigns.

Spoken like a true partisan, Dan.

Oh! Of course it was!

Mr. Jacobsen has chosen to seek the nomination of a political party. To win that nomination, he needs the support of Republican partisans.

The MSEA is a completely partisan organization, IMO.

If it's not a flip flop, then it's worse. It means he's just giving lip service to a critical issue for fiscal conservatives. Other candidates are campaigning hard to pass question 4, traveling the state and spending their own money. And where is Jacobson? Hobnobbing with the enemy. He'd do more good doing nothing than talking to the union thugs who are a large part of why we have no private sector in Maine anymore. How about he show some leadership? Help organize Get out the vote events. Donate some money. Run an ad. Organize a phone bank. Do the things you need to do to win.

Fine, he can talk to whomever he wants to. But someone needs to explain to me how that helps anything. Why is he wasting precious time drinking martinis with union bosses instead of using his position as a gubernatorial candidate to help pass TABOR?

OOB08, you haven't answered my question: Do you want to declare your interest?

We all know Dan's interest. And mine. But might we know yours?

I don't have a candidate yet. Mills and Otten have been eliminated from consideration. I have not made a decision regarding Jacobsen. I like him and his campaign manager, Bill Becker, is a friend of mine.

I just find this a weird move. I see the MSEA as part of Maine's Axis of Evil along with the MMA.

Now if he went there and pulled a Ronald Reagan and challenged the MSEA to do things differently that would earn him points in my book. If he went there and played nice and was mealy-mouthed about working with the MSEA, I would not be impressed. That is why I want to know what he said.

By the way, I think the comparison to working with private-sector unions is off base. Union negotiations in the public sector are primarily about politics.

Point of fact: As mayor of Waterville Paul LePage has been dealing with public sector unions for years. Unless I'm misinformed he gets along with the Police Union but the firemen are hostile. Beyond this I know no details.

This from Jacobson's blog:

When I first decided to run for governor, I faced a choice. Do I campaign around the state of Maine, speaking exclusively to my friends, or do I take some risks and talk to people who disagree with me? Conventional wisdom told me to do the former - but I didn't enter this race to be conventional. My campaign team is focused on running to govern - and it it is time Republicans started thinking outside of the box.

So when I received an invitation to speak to a local meeting of the MSEA-SEIU, I immediately accepted.

Many of my Republican friends were concerned when I told them I was planning to attend. The MSEA-SEIU, and labor unions in general, have long been solidly in the Democratic camp, and they worried I would either roll over on my beliefs in order to appease the crowd, or at best I'd be wasting my time by speaking to people who would never vote for me.

But politics as usual has not been working in Maine, and I have no intention of hiding from voters who disagree with me. When I become governor, I will be representing all of the people of Maine, and that means sometimes going places where Republicans have traditionally been afraid of going.

My friends, of course, had nothing to worry about.

I appeared at the MSEA-SEIU gubernatorial event with eight other gubernatorial candidates from every corner of Maine. I spoke to the attendees about the reality that government spends only the taxpayers' money - and that I plan on spending less of the taxpayers' money. I told them we were going to be more efficient and effective in state government. I asked the state employees for their help in identifying waste - they know where it is. And I I told them that we can and will expand opportunity and grow private sector jobs, just like I did when I ran the unionized St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad. I am the only candidate for governor that has experience negotiating with unions, and have a record of success in doing so. It is possible to spend less and deliver better outcomes. A growing, vibrant economy in Maine, afterall, is good for everyone - unionized worker and non-unionized worker alike.

Did I waste my time? I don't think so. Something in the neighborhood of 30% of SEIU members are actually Republicans, and a great deal of the rest are politically independent, and care about issues beyond just the typical union agenda. In 1980, Ronald Reagan actually won 44% of voters who lived in a union household - and he didn't do it by selling out his principles. He did it by sticking to them, and talking to people who may not have supported him.

Even those who disagreed with every word I said left that meeting with the impression that I respected them enough to give them my real opinion, knowing it wouldn't be popular. Was I the most popular person in the room? Hardly.

But in the end, this campaign will not be politics as usual. I'm not a career politician, and I won't accept the notion that we only appeal to our friends. We will take our message of job growth and economic prosperity to every corner of Maine, and I will be a better governor as a result.

[Posted in its entirety with permission in order to not lose anything "in the translation."]

OOB08:

Let me ask another way: Do you have a "dog in this race"?

And does OOB08 stand for "Obama 2008"?

Kind of naive. Sure there are rank and file union members who vote Republican, but those are not the people who are showing up at the annual convention.

More importantly, the MSEA-SEIU is not just any union. They are a completely political organization. They are a key member of Maine's Axis of Evil, along with the MMA.

Re: the claim that Ronald Reagan got 40% of union household votes. I would bet that most of those union households were not government unions, but private sector ones, like the UAW. I saw that when I lived in Michigan. They were called the Reagan Democrats. The issues that drove them were the social issues (many were blue-collar Catholics) and patroitism. Many were disgusted by Jimmy Carter's economic incompetence and naivete about the Soviet Union.

Agreed that it might be of interest to watch video of his speech. However, I'm not fretting this one as I've already ruled him out... The same week Jacobson announced he touted bonds on WLOB. Long term, he's been pushing for subsidies for one industry or another... Bonds + Subsidies = Screeching Halt. At least for me.