I am, at the moment, utterly confused by the Teamsters withdrawal of its endorsement of Bryan Lentz, supposedly over his sponsorship of HB 400.

From what I have read, the bill that would make it harder for businesses to hire independent contractors easier for unions to sue employees who hire independent contractors.

According to the conservative group Pennsylvania Coalition for Responsible Government:

This is a REALLY bad bill that makes hiring of sub-contractors a very risky proposition and allows unions to sue employers over mis-classification. All of the Democrats are likely to support this bill and we must let the Republicans on the Committee know that the people of the state demand that they put a stake through the heart of this job killing bill.

Can it be that even the Teamsters understand that more state regulations on business is a bad way to go in this economy?

Teamsters boss, Bill Hamilton, said HB 400 did not address transportation needs of the union's members, whatever that means. But the the very public loss of the Teamsters' endorsement is real loss to Lentz campaign, and it sees dirty work afoot.

"... you have to what (Republican Pat Meehan) promised the Teamsters leadership to get them to go against their members interests," Lentz spokesman Kevin McTigue told a reporter.

I've got to admit that was the first thing I wondered too, not that I accept McTigue's characterization of the union leadership going against its members interests.

The county GOP has always managed to have a pretty good relationship with the big unions. When Curt Weldon was in Congress he worked the bosses pretty darn well. It would be interesting to know if there were any talks between the Meehan campaign and union leaders before this decision was made.

Of course, it is possible that Hamilton and his boys are just reading the writing on the wall. They believe Lentz is going to lose and don't want to be on the outs when the seat reverts back to Republican hands. But it is very unusual for a special interest group to retract an endorsement, especially so close to the end of a campaign. I've never heard of it being done. Has anyone else?