Eric Burnette: Campaign Update

We don't win by being Republican lite".

"When you dial 911 at 3:30 in the morning, who shows up?  A union member."

Eric Burnette is an old school New Deal Democrat.  He sees a path to victory in re-energizing a progressive Democratic majority of poor, working, and middle class people conscious of their economic interest and true opponent.

Eric Burnette

Burnette was in Ashland Monday talking to a group from "Our Revolution," the local group of activists keeping alive the faith and policies of Bernie Sanders. Burnette related a story about why people who voted for Trump also liked Bernie Sanders. A member of the group called out, "He said right out loud that he was a socialist!"  The group laughed.

Burnette reported that they said it was because only Trump and Bernie Sanders appeared to "feel their pain." They felt poor and were angry about it.

Burnette says he understands the 2016 election result.  People in "middle America", were feeling the economic pain of stagnating wages. Asked about the tax bill just passed by Congress, Burnette said "working families don't need a tax break. They need a raise."

Eric Burnette came dressed in blue jeans, a shirt, and a fleece vest. He looked comfortable in an Ashland home filled with people older than his 65 years, people proudly progressive in politics.  He connected--a word this blog used extensively in describing the campaign of Jamie McLeod-Skinner.  Burnette's route to connection is very different from McLeod-Skinner's.

Burnette voices economic solidarity of the frustrated struggling poor and middle class. He describes a world of unequal and unfair distribution of incomes and wealth.  He wants a $15/hour federal minimum wage. He wants no taxes on people earning a poverty income, and he said the definition of "poverty" should be income of less than $30,000 a year. He wants taxes raised on corporations and the income limit raised on the Social Security tax. He wants that great financial burden of health care costs to be eliminated; "we should have health care for all, period." 

House Party, Monday in Ashland

Burnette sees a path to electoral victory. There is a divide in this country and he wants by far the bigger side. He wants that majority coalition of people who share a common interest: getting  a bigger, fairer share of the economic wealth of this rich and productive nation.  

We have become a nation of rich and poor instead of a great nation populated by a secure middle class, he says. He wants to rebuild that middle class by pulling them up from poverty and near-poverty. Even in a bright red District, that coalition is a majority.

Unions. He proposes the route to achieve this. "If we want a thriving middle class we need unions. We need to re-unionize the American workforce."  He asked rhetorically, "but aren't unions dying?"  No. "I just don't buy it!"  

Burnette was a member of a union and the people whose work he regulated as ship pilots were members of a union. He spoke favorably of teachers' unions, police and fire unions, industrial unions.  He gets campaign support from unions. Asked if he accepted PAC money from them, he said he sure did. He said he was proud to get endorsements and support from the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters. It was clean money from individuals who had "locked arms together." People, locking arms, had power.

Eric Burnette changes the Democratic paradigm.  Hillary Clinton had it wrong. Her America envisioned a struggle between disadvantaged ethnic and gender groups versus the privileged. Burnette sees a different struggle, one between the economically disadvantaged 90% versus the wealthy and powerful.  Burnette doesn't attack Hillary-style identity politics.  He ignores it.

What did not get said: race, ethnic, or gender identity.  He never mentioned Hillary Clinton. He never referenced blacks, Blacks Lives Matter, women, ethnicity, prejudice, gender pay equity, reproductive rights, or sexual harassment. He never spoke about police shootings. He never mentioned Islam, travel bans, or terrorism. He talked about wealth inequality, not discrimination.

Eric Burnette not talk about rural identity either. Burnette advocated for rural interests (rural broadband, rural infrastructure) but did not appear to identify with the resentments of rural versus urban. Jamie McLeod-Skinner works hard to project authentic District agricultural and ranching roots, on her own and through marriage. She--and Raz Mason--talked about connection between red and blue America and between urban and rural America. We "get" rural people, they say. They identify a rural-urban divide and say they are cultural bridge builders. They say shared experiences and respect provide the cultural lubricant that would allow habitual Republican voters to realize that Democrats could be trustworthy representatives. Burnette doesn't do this, either.  Again, he talked about wealth inequality, not rural resentments.

Listening in Ashland

Burnette's pathway to victory is in a coalition of the 99%--or at least the 90%--of people of all ethnicities and genders and regions who share a common grievance: that these Americans are not getting their fair share.  Factory workers who are black, white, and brown are all factory workers with a common interest.   

Burnette does not argue this point. He assumes it. To have mentioned race would have put the culture wars on the table as an issue. For Burnette, it is not the issue. It is a distraction that divides the potential grand coalition, black fighting white, women resenting men, etc.  Burnette keeps his eye on the real issue, to his mind, that all these people together  are creating wealth and not getting enough to live a secure and prosperous middle class life.

Eric Burnette is described by his Democratic opponents as the one who is most "left," but I consider his real differentiation to be his rejection of the culture wars as the framing principle in Democratic politics. For Burnette, politics is about who gets paid.  

Does Burnette have a plausible path to the nomination?  With a 7-candidate race it is plausible that the Democratic primary victor might win with 30% of the vote. There is a plurality available to Burnette--those "Bernie Sanders" people. If he can raise enough money and if he can sharpen his focus, on election day those voters might consider that "Eric Burnette is our guy."  

But at this moment, my anecdotal observations are that McLeod-Skinner and Jim Crary have substantially greater exposure to those voters. And Burnette has not yet closed the deal that "If you liked Bernie, vote for Burnette."  Why?  Because his Democratic opponents are approximately as progressive as is Burnette on policies, and they are more visible than Burnette. The Bernie-supporter vote is split.

Who is Eric Burnette? He is the Bernie-style union-supporting guy.  Not the doctor. Not the Chrysler guy. Not the stonemason guy. Not the lady with vision. Not the lady-rancher.

The identities of each candidate are starting to jell.


[A note on Comments.  I enjoy them.  However, I will be removing anonymous ones that I consider negative about any candidate of either party who is running for an office in Oregon.  No hit-and-run attacks.]