State Sen. Lou Correa of Orange County plans a hearing in Sacramento next week on jobs creation, joining the list of politicians talking about the lingering problem of high unemployment.
Last week, Republican Newt Gingrich was in town to promote his new plan that calls for less government spending and more tax breaks.
As I wrote on Thursday, the unemployed are the new soccer moms, a large group of people highly desired for their votes. With the mid-term elections looming, Democrats are in danger of losing seats and Republicans see a clear opening and a sea of angry voters as a way to regain power.
Unhappy working-class whites could swing the balance of power, according to the National Journal’s Ron Brownstein. Recent election results, like Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, should “trigger an ominous sense of deja vu” for the Democrats, he wrote.
The 1994 landslide that swept Republicans to their House and Senate majorities was powered almost entirely by another revolt among whites who work with their hands: Democrats, in effect, were hit in the head with a 2-by-4. Exit polls showed that from 1992, when House Democrats won a comfortable majority, to 1994, when Republicans captured the chamber, the GOP’s share of the total House vote actually declined slightly among minorities and remained almost unchanged among college whites. But Republicans surged from winning 47 percent of noncollege whites in 1992 to grabbing 61 percent in 1994. That was the majority-maker.
That feeling of angry working folks was apparent at a “jobs summit” that Gingrich held Thursday night at the Irvine Hilton. An hour before the 6:30 start, the ballroom was almost full to capacity as hundreds streamed in to listen to the former House speaker outline his new program that certainly appears to be a run-up to a presidential bid.
“He’s the only one who’s got an ideas,” said Jim Mitchell, 64, of Long Beach. “That whole Contract with America in ‘94 was basically his doing. He’s got a lot of good stuff to say.”
Mitchell, who has been unemployed for nearly three years, drove to the event with his friend Wayne Stickle, 64, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officer.
“My biggest concern is: is my retirement going to be worth anything in the next five years?” Stickle said. “And I’m afraid it’s not with the way things are going. I’m afraid we’re going to have some serious inflation eating away at my fixed income.”
Correa, a Democrat, is the chairman of the State Senate’s Select Committee on California-European Trade. He believes that encouraging more European firms to set up their U.S. operations in California will create more jobs here. According to Correa, many European firms are exploring potential U.S. site locations for high-tech industries, including solar and other “green” technologies, biotechnology, nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals and computer software.
The committee hearing is set for Wednesday, at 2:30 p.m. in Room 2040 of the State Capitol. The public is invited to attend.
