Unions in top heavy electoral states beneficiaries of Obama's largess

Union households were a decisive factor in President Obama's 2008 election. The president won 53 percent of the popular vote, but that victory came largely because he won such relatively union-heavy states as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. But many union members who voted for the president and his Democratic cohorts in Congress won't make the same mistake again.

Half of all union members here live in just six states: California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Needless to say, the auto industry and its affiliated industries (glass, tires, steel, auto parts) are especially to be favored given their prominence in these key states.

The fact that union membership is so heavily concentrated in states top heavy with electoral votes needed to win the next Presidential contest has clearly not escaped Barack Obama or his entourage (his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, is a politico known for his skill in fundraising and picking the right candidates for each district; his chief domestic policy advisor, David Axelrod, is a legendary campaign strategist; Obama himself played a role in designing districts as a state senator that would play a role in his own state election wins).

We can expect a continued series of overtly and covert favors to union members-be it rescuing their pension funds, or even more rules and regulations that favor union leaders and their members over the rest of Americans-as we approach November, 2012.