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When the cat barks, pay attention
By: Michael Barone
Senior Political Analyst
07/17/09 3:45 PM EDT
It was predictable that House Blue Dog Democrats might have a problem with the Democratic leadership’s humungous health care bill. But I find it even more interesting that Colorado Democrat Jared Polis is circulating a letter among his fellow freshman Democrats opposing the $554 billion supertax on high earners. Polis is from a heavily Democratic district centered on the university and extreme spots center town of Boulder; he is one of the wealthy liberal entrepreneurs who have worked successfully for Democratic victories in Colorado in 2006 and 2008.
But evidently he’s still something of a free market guy. The economy-killing potential of the supertax is obvious; it is likely to diminish investment and economic activity and, even more important in my view, will tend to divert the animal spirits of high earners away from creative investments and toward tax shelters. But most Democrats representing districts with disproportionate numbers of high earners have not seemed worried about such things—or worried that their constituents might be worried.
Thus Polis’s protest letter is noteworthy. It suggests a rebellion of affluent liberals against the Obama-Pelosi big government programs. Obama in 2008 assembled a top-and-bottom coalition, winning the top and bottom of the income and education scales while running only about even with those in the middle. Poli’s protest is a sign that t he top may be deserting the coalition.
Is Polis motivated solely by his policy concerns, or is his action in part a response to signals in the political marketplace? I don’t know, but I do know that I have been surprised by the relatively low job ratings Colorado voters have been giving to Democratic Governor Bill Ritter, elected in 2006, and Democratic Senator Michael Bennet, appointed by Ritter to fill Ken Salazar’s Senate seat early this year. Ritter and Bennet seem like attractive characters to me, and if they’re getting low numbers that suggests that Colorado—a fairly solid Obama state in 2008, after voting twice for George W. Bush—is moving away from the Obama Democratic party. Something to keep an eye on.
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