Letter from Washington

Now that it’s official, Jack Kemp’s bid for the 1988 Republican nomination has made him—barring an unlikely run by, say, Pat Buchanan—the likely candidate for the conservative bloc. His unbudgeable support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, supply-side economics, traditional family values, and democratic anti-Communist resistance around the world hits the bull’s-eye with his right-oriented constituencies.

When it comes to his stand on organized labor, however, Kemp draws fire from the same sectors. Kemp has consistently supported union interests, even urging the removal of right-to-work planks from the GOP platform. Kemp favors a labor bill that would bar companies from setting up nonunion subsidiaries to bypass collective-bargaining agreements. Not unexpectedly, the bill is anathema to mainline Republicans, and Kemp’s refusal to modify his position is anathema to, most notably, the National Right to Work Committee. On April 3, the committee sent a mailing to more than five thousand Republican officials, urging them to deluge Kemp with adjurations to change his stand. “Jack Kemp masquerades as a conservative,” says Clayton Roberts, the committee’s spokesman. “He’s trying to butter up organized labor for the presidential race and, in the process, sabotaging a sacrosanct Republican platform.”

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Presidential Election

Now that it’s official, Jack Kemp’s bid for the 1988 Republican nomination has made him—barring an unlikely run by, say, Pat Buchanan—the likely candidate for the conservative bloc. His unbudgeable support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, supply-side economics, traditional family values, and democratic anti-Communist resistance around the world hits the bull’s-eye with his right-oriented constituencies.

When it comes to his stand on organized labor, however, Kemp draws fire from the same sectors. Kemp has consistently supported union interests, even urging the removal of right-to-work planks from the GOP platform. Kemp favors a labor bill that would bar companies from setting up nonunion subsidiaries to bypass collective-bargaining agreements. Not unexpectedly, the bill is anathema to mainline Republicans, and Kemp’s refusal to modify his position is anathema to, most notably, the National Right to Work Committee. On April 3, the committee sent a mailing to more than five thousand Republican officials, urging them to deluge Kemp with adjurations to change his stand. “Jack Kemp masquerades as a conservative,” says Clayton Roberts, the committee’s spokesman. “He’s trying to butter up organized labor for the presidential race and, in the process, sabotaging a sacrosanct Republican platform.”