Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, during an interview in Wisconsin, supported the principle of collective-bargaining for public employees while opposing “collective hijacking” in an answer that might give his opponents an opportunity to drive a wedge between Cain and Republican primary voters.
“Yes,” Cain told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel when asked if he supports collective bargaining for public employees. “But not collective hijacking,” he added, explaining that “if they have gotten so much for so many years and it’s going to bankrupt the state, I don’t think that’s good. It appears that in some instances, they really don’t care.”
Wisconsin passed collective bargaining legislation that sparked a tumultuous state Supreme Court election and a wave of state Senate recall campaigns, which ultimately resulted in Republicans retaining a narrow state Senate majority, despite losing three seats.
Cain also offered mild criticism of the legislation passed by Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, which was recently rejected by Ohio voters on a referendum. “I think in that particular case, maybe they tried to get too much and as a result it failed, but I do support collective bargaining,” he said when asked about the referendum. He reiterated, “In this case, they may have tried to get too much in one bill.”
Though hardly a ringing denunciation of Kasich’s bill, Cain’s assessment of the Ohio referendum reflects his weakness in campaign messaging because it has a substantive likeness to the criticism levelled by liberals against Kasich’s “overreach.”
