The nomination process on the Republican side seems all but resolved with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich out of the race and both formally backing Mitt Romney. There has long been speculation that Ron Paul will get to speak at the Republican Convention, and will support Romney too, with Paul's presumed goals being to keep awareness of his issues front and center and to set the stage for the future of his son in party politics. President Obama's a lock on the Democratic side. So is there nothing more to talk about before November? Hardly, as last night's results and some recent comments by campaign operatives making fascinating statements.
For those who think the Tea Party has fallen asleep, last night should erase that thought. Scott Walker did well in WI. U.S. Senate moderate Republican Richard Lugar lost in his re-election primary bid to Indiana's State Treasurer, Richard Mourdock. North Carolina, where the Democrats will hold their convention this year, just became the 32nd state out of 32 voting in favor of traditional marriage.
On the Democratic side, James Carville launched what must be considered a wake up call for his fellow party activists. Carville issued a warning against complacency by the president or others running for office in the House and Senate. Carville – a professional campaign strategist best known for his service to former President Bill Clinton's campaigns – points to the anti-incumbency trend in Europe and the U.S., as well as less than stellar polling by President Obama against what Carville calls “a weak Republican candidate” in Mitt Romney.
As if to echo Carville's point, was another interesting development in yesterday's voting. A federal inmate, Keith Judd, drew 41% of the votes in West Virginia to President's Obama's 59% in yesterday's Democratic primary voting there. West Virginians – including some high level officials – are not happy with the 'anti-coal' policies by the Obama Administration in a state where its production is critical for their economy.
Some may not see the relevance of the fall elections to our Industry and its state, and those may wonder why I'd even raise the topic and provide the snapshot of the ever stirring political tea leaves. First, it makes for a nice change of pace and I'm a bit of a political junkie. But far more important, I guarantee you that if Warren Buffett is engaged on the subject of this year's elections (and he is), others in our Industry should be too.
Neither side has a lock on the elections come November. That means voices can be heard that may not normally get the time of day. IMHO, that fluidity means potential opportunity for a key manufactured housing issue.
Given the fluid political climate, we could in theory give MH Activists more of an impact on issues such as HR 3849 – the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing bill – especially if we mobilize the MH Business Community to get engaged and also educate and rally the support of manufactured home owners to do the same.
Contact your home owning customers and ask them to support HR 3849 by giving them this link to this new site that is focused on MH Homeowners, MHLivingNews. The MHLivingNews initiative will be one of the new tools we will use to help engage the potentially 19-20 million manufactured home owners to better enjoy their lifestyle and to get them involved in ways that can protect their interests and those of our Industry.
Working together, we can all benefit. Political engagement is a key step. Tuesday's primary results and its aftermath reminded us, this is not going to be a boring election year. There will be plenty of tea leaves to read. ##
Post by
L. A. 'Tony' Kovach
www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals
Office – 815-270-0500
latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://LATonyKovach.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford
