As fall approaches retailers across the country are dressing up their storefronts, hoping to lure shoppers with pretty things in the window, and political campaigns too are dressing up their windows hoping to entice voters with a catchy message. Experienced shoppers learn to avoid items of inferior quality by turning garments inside out and looking at what’s hidden under the pretty exterior. Likewise experienced voters know that they must look below the surface to learn the truth about claims an elected representative is acting in their best interests. 8th District Rep. Chip Cravaack has turned political window dressing into an art form, his latest bill just another in a long line of frilly frocks of inferior quality designed to trick voters into thinking he is acting on their behalf.
Faced with the prospect of losing the coveted United Steelworkers District 11 endorsement to former Congressman Rick Nolan, Cravaack hastily introduced legislation addressing regulation of federal haze standards for taconite mines last Friday, the very last meeting of the last regular session of the 112th Congress. The Cravaack campaign is using this to bolster their narrative that the Tea Party congressman supports workers on the Iron Range, heavily advertising the bill in both mainstream and social media. But what Cravaack doesn’t tell voters in all this hype is that the bill is dead on arrival; it has no chance of making it through the lame duck session and bills not enacted into law at the end of the Congress do not carryover to the next Congress, they die.
So what’s the point?
Window dressing.
In a feeble attempt to lure Iron Range voters, the Cravaack campaign has consistently employed the strategy of misrepresenting his challenger’s position on the mining issue, even floating the rumor that rank and file steelworkers were endorsing the New Hampshire resident as a result. But they saw their narrative unraveling as local after local fell to Cuyuna Range native Nolan, with the endorsement of District 11 soon to follow. Hence one more frilly frock in the window, one more desperate attempt to keep their failing narrative alive.
Who’s kidding who, Chip? Rangers are smarter than you think.