My column for the November 2013 issue of Builder & Developer magazine is now posted online.For this issue, entitled "GOP-Centered Building Industry Update," I wanted to tackle the question of why the building industry is so wedded financially to the Republican Party when (a) the favor is not necessarily returned; and (b) an increasingly diverse pool of new home buyers doesn't support the party's policies. It's a huge disconnect and a potential PR issue in the future. An excerpt:
In the 2012 campaigns, just over three quarters of the NAHB’s BuildPac funds went to the GOP – far higher than the 55 percent from the National Association of Realtors or the 57 percent from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Looking ahead to the 2014 elections, while the GOP money lead from BuildPac has shrunk to 67 percent, it’s still far higher than the 48 percent planned by the NAR...To read the entire column, click here.
By 2043, the Census Bureau estimates that the country will no longer be a white-majority country, fueled today by significantly higher birth rates among multi-racial couples, Asians and Hispanic immigrants...
So why is this important? Because the GOP has a substantial image problem among minority voters, with just 11 percent of non-white voters declaring allegiance to the Republican party as of mid-2012. And when the NAHB’s primary PAC is still targeting two-thirds of its funds towards Republican candidates, it’s hard to ignore this huge political disconnect between supplier and buyer.
To read the entire November 2013 issue in digital format, click here.
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