Who Are The Lunch Pail Republicans?

I usually watch MSNBC in the mornings and over the last few weeks, I've noticed these 30-second ads by a group called Lunch Pail Republicans. The Lunch Pail Republicans are a political action committee formed by David Fagan to work against the legislation that is going through the Indiana Statehouse often called "Right-To-Work".

RTW bars employers from requiring employees to join a union as a condition of employment and can't force the collection of union dues. Advocates of this legislation say that if a union provides a good service, they won't be affected and also claim that several RTW states are more heavily unionized than Indiana is. The labor advocates say that it is an attack on workers' rights and also note that it does little, if anything, to encourage economic development.

Fagan sides with labor advocates and believes Republican leadership in Indiana has "lost their way". He says he's actively recruiting candidates to run against RTW supporters in the 2012 primary. And he also wants these candidates to run on

What I find interesting is that Fagan is finding a lot of support from somewhere because these ads are being played constantly on the television and radio. A standard practice for PACs is to produce an ad, slap it on the web, make a very limited ad buy and hope that political talk shows will pick it up. And maybe if it's a particularly well produced ad, it'll go "viral" on the Internet.

But that isn't the strategy with Fagan. In addition to seeing several of the ads on MSNBC, I've heard radio versions aired on 93.1 WIBC in the 12 noon-3pm time slot. Considering that's when Rush Limbaugh is aired, it means Fagan is getting money from somewhere.

And filing deadlines and petitions for ballot access are due really, really soon.

So we'll see how serious Fagan and his group is on primary challenges to Republicans who vote for Right-To-Work.