"No one had campaigned on it; it was a big issue that hit the public cold."

There is an interesting on-line response from Governor Mitch Daniels in Indiana on why he recently came out in opposition to the Indiana legislature trying to enact a Right to Work law in Indiana before the state's budget bill was addressed:


"Here in Indiana we have a very extensive 2011 agenda that these critics, if they took the time to look, would strongly applaud: another no-tax budget, an automatic refund to taxpayers past a specified level of state reserves, sweeping reform of archaic and anti-taxpayer local government, reduction of the corporate income tax, and the most far-reaching reform of education in America, including statewide vouchers for low and moderate income families.  We laid all this before the public during last year's elections.

Into this a few of my allies chose to toss Right to Work (RTW).  I suggested studying it for a year and developing the issue for next year.  No one had campaigned on it; it was a big issue that hit the public cold.  I was concerned that it would provide the pretext for radical action by our Democratic minority that would jeopardize the entire agenda above, with zero chance of passing RTW itself.  And that is exactly what has happened."

That seems like good old-fashion pragmatism.

National politicians and Scott Fitzgerald, majority leader in the senate, keep talking about how no one should have been surprised by the Budget Reform Bill's provisions because Governor Walker campaigned on them. But that is not true with regard to the major provisions for changing the collective bargaining laws that have been in place for 50 plus years.