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The Politics of Low Price
This past summer, WakeUpWalmart.com, the union-backed group that criticizes Wal-Mart’s business practices, urged Democratic candidates to join their battle to change the world’s biggest retailer.
The organization sponsored a nationwide bus tour that rolled through Ohio, Iowa and other politically important states. It attracted support from several Democrats pondering 2008 presidential runs, including Sens. Joe Biden and Evan Bayh.
But in this final week of 2006 campaigning, the Wal-Mart issue has not figured prominently in debates or candidate ads.
On Tuesday, Working Families for Wal-Mart, a “grassroots” campaign launched in December with Wal-Mart funding, released a poll that shows most voters are not interested in Wal-Mart as a political issue.
When asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of political candidates making Wal-Mart an issue in the upcoming elections,” 68 percent disapproved, with 37 percent strongly disapproving. Only 21 percent of approved.
The nationwide poll was conducted Oct. 5-8 by RT Strategies Inc., a bipartisan polling organization. Working Families issued a press release quoting Thom Riehle, the Democratic partner at the polling firm, saying that anti-Wal-Mart campaigning “does far more to anger and annoy than it does to motivate.”
Chris Kofinis, spokesman for WakeUpWalmart.com., dismissed the poll. “I trust independent polls, not ones bought and paid for by Wal-Mart,” he said, pointing to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showing most Americans say Wal-Mart should be more regulated if it doesn’t boost wages and benefits.
“This is just the beginning” of making Wal-Mart a political issue, he predicted.
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