Eye on Election, Democrats Run as Wal-Mart Foe

[Snowden]

Eye on Election, Democrats Run as Wal-Mart Foe
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: August 17, 2006

DES MOINES, Aug. 16 — Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden’s main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals.

It was Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer.

Among Democrats, Mr. Biden is not alone. Across Iowa this week and across much of the country this month, Democratic leaders have found a new rallying cry that many of them say could prove powerful in the midterm elections and into 2008: denouncing Wal-Mart for what they say are substandard wages and health care benefits.

Six Democratic presidential contenders have appeared at rallies like the one Mr. Biden headlined, along with some Democratic candidates for Congress in some of the toughest-fought races in the country.

“My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don’t see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people,” Mr. Biden said, standing on the sweltering rooftop of the State Historical Society building here. “They talk about paying them $10 an hour. That’s true. How can you live a middle-class life on that?”

The focus on Wal-Mart is part of a broader strategy of addressing what Democrats say is general economic anxiety and a growing sense that economic gains of recent years have not benefited the middle class or the working poor.

Their alliance with the anti-Wal-Mart campaign dovetails with their emphasis in Washington on raising the minimum wage and doing more to make health insurance affordable. It also suggests they will go into the midterm Congressional elections this fall and the 2008 presidential race striking a populist tone.

Some Democrats expressed concern about the direction the party was heading, saying it could turn back efforts by such party leaders as former President Bill Clinton to erase the image of the party as anti-business and scare off corporations that might be inclined to make contributions.

Still, what is striking about this campaign is the ideological breadth of the Democrats who have joined in, including some who in the past have warned the party against appearing hostile to business interests.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who was a member of Wal-Mart’s board when she lived in Arkansas, the corporation’s home state, returned a $5,000 campaign contribution from the company last year. Mrs. Clinton said she did so to protest Wal-Mart’s health care benefits, and she has continued to distance herself from the policies of a company she was close to when she was the first lady of Arkansas.

Scheduling conflicts prevented Mrs. Clinton from attending any of the rallies being organized, her aides said. But she supported many of the campaign’s goals, they added.

“It’s not anti-business,” said Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a former head of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, appearing at an anti-Wal-Mart rally on Tuesday. “Wal-Mart has become emblematic of the anxiety around the country, and the middle-class squeeze.”

“All you need to know is Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont have appeared at these events,” Mr. Bayh said, speaking of the Connecticut senator and the man who defeated him in the Democratic primary on Aug. 8. “That’s pretty good evidence that Democrats across the country are rallying around this issue.”

Yet there are clear risks for Democrats, not least in alienating Wal-Mart employees and customers.

Wal-Mart has begun a counterattack. In interviews on Wednesday, company executives warned that they would alert their 1.3 million American employees to the anti-Wal-Mart campaign. They also pointed to a poll the company financed that reported that Americans were generally supportive of the company.

“There is far more evidence to show that this short-sighted political strategy will backfire than that it will actually work,” said Mona Williams, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores. “We believe our associates vote, and it is our responsibility to let them know when a politician speaks out for or against our company.”

In a letter to its workers in Iowa, Wal-Mart warned of the political events, including appearances by Mr. Bayh, Mr. Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

Wal-Mart “would never suggest to you how to vote,” the letter said, “but we have an obligation to tell you when politicians are saying something about your company that isn’t true. After all, you are Wal-Mart.”

Some Republicans said Democrats were trying to appease liberal bloggers, union leaders and an Democratic left wing invigorated by Mr. Lieberman’s defeat in the primary.

But Democrats say they are sure they have a message that will resonate. John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2004, appeared at an anti-Wal-Mart rally in Pittsburgh two weeks ago. Mr. Edwards said in an interview that his party was not vulnerable to a backlash for this criticism so long as Democrats made clear that their main goal was improving policies for the poor and the middle class.

“Wal-Mart as an example of the problems that exist in America today is a powerful political issue,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “I think our party pretty much across the board agrees that people who work hard should be able to support their families. When a company like Wal-Mart fails to meet its corporate responsibility, it make it impossible for that to occur.”

Democrats say Wal-Mart is a potent symbol of corporate excess. The company earned $11 billion in profit last year, but fewer than half of its employees in the United States are covered by its health care plan, and the average worker earns less than $20,000 a year.

Wal-Mart counters that its average wage is more than $10 an hour, and that more than 150,000 Americans who had no health insurance now have it through the company. It also says it has saved consumers billions of dollars by squeezing costs.

The challenges to Wal-Mart are hardly new: it has been the target of political attacks as far back as when Patrick J. Buchanan ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, and said Wal-Mart was guilty of “gigantism” for crushing smaller businesses.

The criticism has become more intense as Wal-Mart has grown into an increasingly major influence on the American economy and culture. For example, there is an ongoing cross-country bus tour, now in Iowa, organized by Wake Up Wal-Mart, a union-financed group highly critical of the retailer. The campaign includes news conferences with elected leaders in 19 states, may be the most ambitious tactic to date.

Wake Up Wal-Mart’s communications director, Chris Kofinis, said a large cast of Democratic candidates was joining the rallies. They include candidates in Senate races in Ohio and Maryland, and the governor’s race in Maryland, where Wal-Mart’s practices have been the subject of a legislative battle. “Who can disagree with the proposition that corporations should provide affordable health care, pay decent wages, protect American jobs and help provide a safe and just workplace?” Mr. Kofinis said.

Ms. Williams, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the rallies would not resonate with voters. Democrats, she said, were “attending a union-sponsored protest with small crowds of faithful union activists, and there is not a swing vote in sight.’’

“They are preaching to the choir,” Ms. Williams said.

For years, labor activists have characterized Wal-Mart as beholden to Republicans. In the last election cycle, they note, the company gave 80 percent of its contributions to Republicans. Many of its stores are in Republican-dominated territory in the rural South.

But as Wal-Mart has grown in size and power, it has tried to establish ties to the Democratic party. Its chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., has grown close to Mr. Clinton, who personally thanked him for Wal-Mart’s relief work after Hurricane Katrina and played host to Mr. Scott at his home in New York last month. In addition, Mr. Scott recently played host to the former Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, to talk about the environment, and he appeared on the New York radio show of the Democratic activist Al Sharpton.

Even the Democrats who have been at the forefront of the recent attacks have not always had difficult relations with the corporation. Mr. Bayh, for example, took a total of $10,000 in contributions from Wal-Mart in the 2002 and 2004 campaigns.

“It’s clear that the contributions did not have any influence on how he has approached this issue,” said Dan Pfieffer, a spokesman for Mr. Bayh.


Adam Nagourney reported from Des Moines for this article, and Michael Barbaro from New York.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/wa...th&oref=slogin