T ransportation rarely gets mentioned on the presidential campaign trail. Issues around infrastructure are complicated, after all; the work is expensive and the entrenched view of roads as a local matter means they’re often taken for granted in the national debate. In other words, talking about potholes doesn’t get presidential votes. But speaking before hundreds of city mayors and other officials at the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami in June, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama not only embraced the topic but suggested that infrastructure investment would be an important pillar in his campaign. “We’re spending less on our infrastructure than at any time in the modern era,” the freshman senator from Illinois said. “When it comes to rebuilding America’s essential but crumbling infrastructure, we need to do more, not less.” The call was part of what has become a drumbeat in the Obama campaign as the presumptive nominee has raised the call for greater funding for the country’s roads, bridges and highways — something many business leaders, lawmakers and others believe is desperately needed. Speaking in Janesville, Wis., this February, Obama drew a direct line between infrastructure funding and economic competitive ness. “Right here in Wisconsin we know that $500 million of freight will come through the state by 2020,” he said. “If we do not have the infrastructure to handle it, we will not get the business.” Comments like that have drawn praise from those who rely on the highways for their bread and butter — road builders, truckers and shippers — even though a large swath of the transportation world may lean more toward Obama’s Republican rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, on many other issues. “He is definitely saying the right things about rebuilding our infrastructure,” said Randy Mullett, vice president of governmental relations for trucking and logistics giant Con-way. “If Obama got in there, there are definitely going to be some changes in the financial conditions of this country and those changes could be very good for the highway system and the railroads as well,” said Wayne Johnson, director of logistics for American Gypsum, a $922 million wallboard manufacturer with headquarters in Dallas. Despite his outspoken support for infrastructure investment, however, Barack Obama represents a double-edged sword for transportation interests in an election with enormous stakes for car- riers and shippers. Business in general remains ambivalent about a Democrat whose transportation plans — like those of his Republican rival — are still vague, and who is closely aligned with labor. And with a relatively short history in public policy and national politics, Obama remains a blank slate for much of the transportation and shipping world, as he does with the electorate on a wide range of issues. Businesses are looking at everything from his ties to Chicago city politics to his lineup of policy advisors — it includes former Clinton administration Trans-

portation Secretary Federico Peña — for suggestions of how a campaign will turn into a government.

Although many applaud Obama’s call for greater infrastructure investment, the question about where the funds will come from isn’t far in the background for many businesses. Obama has not addressed the calls by some for an increase in the federal fuel tax, but many industry observers say the debates over taxes and transportation would change a great deal under an Obama administration.

“I think [with] McCain, maybe [tax hikes] won’t be as aggressive as Obama,” said Johnson.

For many transportation companies, the biggest issue sur-
rounding a potential Obama administration is organized labor.
As Obama’s Republican critics are quick to point out, one of the
his top priorities in the Senate has been leg-
islation that would make it easier for work-
ers at nonunion companies to organize.
“I’ve talked with trucking companies on
this issue and they are scared to death,” said
Randel Johnson, the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce’s vice president of labor, immigration
and employee benefits.

“The trucking industry since federal deregulation in 1980 has evolving into being

a largely nonunion industry and that dynamic could be very seriously threatened if the right of workers to have secret unionization elections is repealed,” said James Burnley, who was transportation secretary under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush and who has advised the McCain campaign.

The campaign spotlight fell sharply on transportation labor this month when McCain drew sharp attacks, and Obama campaign ads, for his past support of DHL as the carrier prepares to move its U.S. traffic over to UPS.

The Teamsters union endorsed Obama in March, even with the Democratic nomination still under contention.

Labor is a major issue for FedEx, which has been fighting off Teamsters efforts to unionize its workers, a move that could level the playing field for unionized competitor UPS. “I would expect FedEx to be nervous,” said Robert W. Poole Jr., director of transportation studies at the libertarian Reason Foundation. “I would be if I were in there shoes.”

Still, that hasn’t stopped the company from contributing more than $17,000 to the Obama campaign. Officials at FedEx, which also contributed $65,000 to McCain, did not return requests for comment.

Obama has supported a call for a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank, pleasing those in the transportation industry who see the need to raise funds outside of the traditional avenues.

The concept, very similar to bipartisan legislation endorsed by Obama in the Senate, would establish a bank to oversee national infrastructure projects costing $75 million or more using private sector money, raised by issuing “tax-credit bonds,”

This is the second in a two-part

Traffic World series on the Republican and
Democratic candidates for president in this
November’s election, looking at the policies
and potential impact of a possible McCain or
Obama administration on transportation,
trade and the freight movement industry.
The first part of the series, “Transportation
Eyes McCain,” ran in the July 28-Aug. 4
edition of Traffic World.