WASHINGTON -- The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which broke a 100-year history of neutrality to endorse President Bush for re-election in 2004, will not endorse a presidential candidate this year, officials said Oct. 29.
With Congress in Democratic hands, NCBA CEO Terry Stokes told reporters the group's members had decided it would be better to take a bipartisan approach. Burton Eller, the head of NCBA's Washington office, said NCBA has been working with both campaigns and thinks that if Democratic candidate Barack Obama is elected he will listen to NCBA's views.
Jeff Eisenberg, NCBA's director of public lands issues, noted that Obama "has reached out to all segments of agriculture" in his campaign. Eisenberg also noted that Obama has promised to make all decisions on regulations based on science.
Changing times
NCBA's decision is a remarkable indication of changing political times. Democrats are likely to increase their numbers in Congress. In addition, Obama is well ahead in national and key statewide polls and a Greenberg Rosner Quinlan poll of rural areas in key battleground states at the end of October found Obama ahead of Republican presidential candidate John McCain by 1 percent in rural areas. That poll was of 841 rural voters in 13 states -- New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.38 percent.
ADVERTISEMENT
McCain's positions are much more in line with NCBA's views than Obama's.
McCain, however, has said he would end all government support for ethanol and emphasize free trade while Obama is a strong ethanol backer and has said he would emphasize "fair trade" and seek to "amend" the North American Free Trade Agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Eller said neither candidate is willing to go along with NCBA's call to repeal the estate tax, but that both candidates had agreed to cap the estate tax and that McCain is willing to index the cap for inflation.
NAFTA changes
Eller said the possibility of reopening NAFTA makes "the flags go up" for cattlemen because Mexico has become the No. 1 market for U.S. beef and Canada the No. 2 market. An Obama spokesman said Obama firmly supports open markets and thinks that trade can play an important role in a strong American economy, but that he thinks "far too often, our trade agreements are written to serve corporate lobbyists and special interests, not American workers and families" and that he is "committed to working with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to amend NAFTA so that it includes enforceable labor and environmental provisions in the core of the agreement."
Eller said Obama's plans to amend NAFTA with labor and environmental provisions could result in an end to those agreements because the Canadians and the Mexicans would not agree to those provisions. But he said Obama may rethink his trade proposals after the election.
No reward
Some meat industry sources said they think NCBA is not making an endorsement because many cattlemen think they did not get rewarded for their endorsement of Bush. Stokes said "philosophically, we've seen some alignment with the Bush administration," but other sources in the cattle industry said that individual members have been disappointed by the administration's difficulties in restoring markets after mad cow disease was discovered in the United States and by the administration's support for government aid to promote the corn-based ethanol industry.
ADVERTISEMENT
NCBA chief economist Gregg Doud said that Bush administration officials have tried hard in negotiations with the Japanese, the Koreans and officials in other countries to reopen the beef markets, but that they have met strong resistance. In some cases, Doud said, there simply has been no one from Japan willing talk to the U.S. officials about the negotiations.
