Politico: Guinta “Settles Score with Organized Labor”

Politico’s Jeanne Cummings writes that while most new House members spent their first few months in Washington promoting standard-issue conservative legislation, nine of the 96 House freshmen used the legislative process to “assist donors, protect favored industries or settle scores with their political enemies.” Rep. Frank Guinta was singled out for using his new power to settle scores with organized labor.

Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.), whose candidacy was attacked with about $140,000 of independent expenditures by the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, introduced a measure that would prohibit funding for any government contract that requires a labor agreement, which critics say gives unionized contractors an edge.

The measure was endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which countered the labor Guinta attack ads with more than $30,000 in ads and mailings, and by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which invested nearly $150,000 in independent expenditures supporting Guinta’s candidacy.

Defying logic, Guinta’s spokesman J. Mark Powell explained, ”We can’t afford to divert limited taxpayer resources into union pockets…. It’s not anti-union.”