 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Social Issues Motivate Tech Democrats
by Bara Vaida
The talk was understandably partisan, given that all who attended the shindig supported former Vice President Al Gore and some still believe he won. But such talk was not isolated to Larson's home. In about a dozen interviews with moderate Democrats who live and work in Silicon Valley, all expressed a level of anger at the early decisions of the new administration.
"There has been a sharper undercurrent in feelings among Democrats than I expected," said Rick White, a former Republican representative from Washington state and now president and CEO of the bipartisan lobbying group TechNet. White recently attended a breakfast meeting in Silicon Valley between high-tech officials and Democratic Leadership Council Chairman Evan Bayh, where the centrist Sen. Bayh, Ind., was critical of Republicans' handling of policy issues.
A First Take On Bush
Larson said Bush is not the moderate he campaigned as, and that his reversal of Clinton administration policies on issues like global warming, tougher arsenic standards in water and federal funding for international family planning organizations that discuss abortion risk alienating moderates and independents in the Bay area, some of whom supported the president.
"I think with the slowdown in the economy, many high-tech people have more time to reflect on the social issues that concern them," said Larson, who contributed about $86,400 to Democratic candidates and political committees during the election 2000 cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Democrats unanimously supported Bush's choice of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers partner Floyd Kvamme to be co-chairman of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. But Larson's comments appear to reflect a growing trend among Silicon Valley Democrats in the high-tech community — that social issues have leapfrogged technology and economic issues as their first priority.
"With Clinton, Gore, you could have your cake and eat it, too," said Nancy Pfund, managing director of the San Francisco investment firm of JP Morgan H&Q. We could get support on our business issues and at the same time our social issues were in sync. It was kind of a packaged deal. ... Now with Bush pursuing the conservative base of his party ... it creates a lot more polarizing" among Democrats. "It's hard to accomplish business-related goals when Bush is pursuing a social agenda" that is under pressure from the conservative wing of the party, she said.
A Sign Of Trouble To Come ...
Many of the Democrats interviewed for this story by National Journal's Technology Daily were among the most partisan even before the election. But their shift toward focusing on social issues has concerned some Republicans in the region, particularly because Silicon Valley has no GOP representatives in Congress.
"Silicon Valley's greatest political strength has been its ability to work in a bipartisan matter, and if one faction decides to engage more forcefully on behalf of one party or the other, it compromises the whole technology community's agenda in Washington," said Dan Schnur, a Republican consultant in California and former communications strategist for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Other Republicans worry that the growing partisanship will make it harder to persuade Republicans to come visit Silicon Valley, hence diminishing their clout. In fact, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., has said Republicans are unlikely to make any inroads in the region in the near future because the party's message on the environment and other social issues does not resonate in Silicon Valley.
High-tech's partisan Democratic views "will end up driving how the rest of the world perceives our community," worried another Republican in the high-tech industry who declined to be named.
Not all Republicans share such concerns. Laura Ipsen, Cisco System's government affairs director, said the Democratic support for Kvamme is a good sign for the tech industry's agenda because it means both sides will continue to work together on the policy issues that affect the industry's bottom line. "That the focus is on issues outside technology policy, means they [Democrats] feel good and secure about the administration's" positions on high tech," Ipsen said.
... Or A Unifying Force?
While some Republicans fret about the high-tech Democrats' shift toward focusing on social policy, the move could help unify the Democratic Party, which has been racked with conflict between its left and centrist wings. Early this year, a Democratic panel debated why Gore lost the presidential election, and representatives from both wings argued that Gore had either run too far to the left or too far to the center to win.
Valley Democrats' alliance to the New Democrat Coalition helped stir that conflict. The coalition, a group of moderate congressional Democrats, has voted for permanent normal trade relations with China, H-1B visas for skilled workers and Y2K litigation relief. Valley Republicans and Democrats alike heavily lobbied all three issues, though core constituents of the Democratic Party, such as unions and trial lawyers, opposed the legislation.
"Democrats in the valley are still as concerned about global trade and creating the economic environment to thrive as they were before," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, the political arm of the New Democrat Coalition, who does not believe Democrats in Silicon Valley are becoming more aligned with the left wing of the party. "But I think what you are really hearing out there is that Democrats have to stick together. We have to spend less time fighting each other."
House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., who said high-tech Republicans like to refer to him as their California representative because none exist in the valley, chalked up the Democrats' turn toward social issues as a reflection of their frustration at Gore's loss and the inability of the Democrats to articulate an economic message that would stop Bush's tax-cut plan.
"I think the Democrats are frustrated ... and they are having a difficult time rallying around specific issues," he said in an interview with National Journal Group reporters last week. Dreier noted that recent polls show that Americans have the highest opinion ever of the Republican-led Congress.
An Eye On Election 2002
Still, Silicon Valley Democrats' focus on social issues may signal what the party itself uses in the next election cycle to rally support.
Former AT&T cable and Internet strategist and Global Crossing CEO Leo Hindery is a former registered Republican who switched parties because of its stance on social issues, and he said he has been "emboldened" by the outcome of the election. He is using his amassed fortune to help the Democratic Party in the 2002 election. In the 2000 cycle, he donated $534,152 to Democratic political committees and about $33,000 to Democratic candidates.
"I've never been a big fan of wrapping politics around business issues," he said. "I wrap it around employees ... and a majority of employees in Silicon Valley voted Democrat."
As for whether Bush's decisions on the environment and social policy could alienate moderates, Schnur noted that for "Republicans, moderate or conservative, it's been eight long years" since they have had one of their own in the White House. "So they are willing to cut the administration some slack if there are one or two issues they don't agree on."
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
