SusanG on dailykos cites this Boston Globe piece:
Democrats to woo voters on wage issue
Frozen minimum pay seen as spur
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | December 25, 2005
WASHINGTON — New Year’s Day will bring the ninth straight year in which the federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $5.15 an hour, marking the second-longest period that the nation has had a stagnant minimum wage since the standard was established in 1938.
Against that backdrop, Democrats are preparing ballot initiatives in states across the country to boost turnout of Democratic-leaning voters in 2006. Labor, religious, and community groups have launched efforts to place minimum-wage initiatives on ballots in Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Arkansas, and Montana next fall.
Democrats say the minimum wage could be for them what the gay-marriage referendums were in key states for Republicans last year — an easily understood issue that galvanizes their supporters to show up on Election Day.
SusanG adds:
This seems to me to be a winner on all fronts. Besides being the right thing to do, it’s an opportunity to tie in bloated CEO salaries, benefit cuts, corporate tax breaks and other oligarchical schemes so dear to the (barely beating) GOP heart.
Additionally, it will have the backing of John Edwards – who, with his theme of the two Americas – is the perfect (and popular) spokesperson for the issue.
And, later:
My only concern stems from the fact that although the minimum wage initiatives won “overwhelmingly,” they didn’t seem to have the intensity of the coattail effect the GOP claimed for the gay marriage initiatives last year, sweeping candidates in with them. Of course, this could be from conservatives over-attributing turnout to the “values” crowd; it’s hard to see how citizens could really care more about what’s going on in their neighbor’s bedroom than how much cash is in their wallets each pay period.
The Democrats are starting to wise up. The right has gotten very good at putting their “values” items, aka wedge issues, on the ballot to motivate their base. About fucking time our side got on that ball.