CPSIA – Congress and CPSC in the Clouds . . . .

I have heard from an old friend today, a resale shop owner. The store owner is as frustrated as anyone by the CPSIA and has some interesting observations. The store owner’s point is that it is utterly impractical for store personnel to be up-to-date on recalls or to manage recall issues on a day-to-day basis. Think recalled baby monitors with “remedies” like a new warning label. Think also of the national chain of resale shops that told us that many of their MANAGERS are paid $8 per hour. Can you get a sense of the brilliance of Congress’ master plan yet?

The store owner sent me a picture worth a thousand words:

The store owner: “The photo I’ve attached is of my six-inch binder of printouts for every recall on children’s items since the early 90′s. The papers on the floor are the new recalls since September 2010. I printed those last week, so I need to go back and print the newer ones. I take this binder to all my events and strive to search it thoroughly to keep recalled items out of our events. I’m going shopping today to pick up a second six-inch binder as I’m obviously going to need it.” [Emphasis added]

Sounds very practical. I am sure Scott Wolfson and Sean Oberle have some useful tips for this store owner on how to manage all this data. It is worth NOTING that rifling through 20 years of CPSC recalls is not the store owner’s main business – their business is selling gently-used merchandise – but it probably seems like it nowadays.

The store owner is also a victim of unscrupulous “gaming” by a competitor who seeks to capitalize on fear and the ambitions of local politicians to put pressure on him/her. The store owner: “I’m no longer comfortable posting publicly about CPSIA since a local children’s resale full-time store owner has told several of her shoppers that she’s planning to call the [local] Attorney General to come investigate my next seasonal consignment event to be sure I’m in compliance with CPSIA. Since I don’t have XRF vision, there is no way to prove I’m in compliance with the instructions to not resell anything over the lead limits, despite the fact that I’m not required to test. I still don’t have a clue what do to about phthalates, but I’ve banned all bath books, bath toys, & teething toys from our events anyway.” [Emphasis added]

There’s a stimulus plan for you. . . .

Did you catch the store owner referring to any topic relating to safety, such as injuries or concern for the health of children? Nope. It isn’t the concern of the competing store owner or the local Attorney General, either. This is about officious bureaucracy, paperwork for paperwork’s sake, all to satisfy a neurotic anxiety without a basis in FACT.

I used to ask “Where are the victims?” The zealots in the last three years have been able to produce exactly ZERO injured children from lead or phthalates in children’s products. So I guess I have to nominate my friend the store owner – a prototypical victim of this law.

Job well done, Congress and CPSC!

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CPSIA – Congress and CPSC in the Clouds . . . .

CPSIA – Committee Press Release About CPSIA Hearing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 18, 2011

CONTACT: Press Office
(202) 226-4972

Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Examines Unintended Consequences of 2008 Law on Jobs and Small Businesses

WASHINGTON, DC – The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, chaired by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Thursday convened a hearing to examine the unintended consequences of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 on American job creators including small businesses and thrift stores. It reviewed the impact of the recent legislation on Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC ) resources and its ability to protect consumers. In addition to several small business owners, CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum and Commissioner Anne Northup were also among the witnesses.

“As a mother, I have very strong, passionate feelings about protecting all children,” said Bono Mack. “But as a former small business owner, I know all too well how unnecessary regulations – even well intentioned ones – can destroy lives, too. This is a rare opportunity to put aside the differences that often divide this great body and put our heads together to make a good law even better.”

Rick Woldenberg, the operator of Learning Resources, Inc., a small business making educational products and educational toys, testified on the many difficulties associated with the new, burdensome requirements.

“Children are our business and the safety of children is our number one priority,” said Woldenberg. “The CPSIA, unfortunately, purportedly to protect children from vaguely-defined dangers, has dramatically impacted our business model, reduced our ability to make a profit and create jobs, pared our incentive to invest in new products and new markets, and generally made it more difficult to grow our business. Given these considerable sacrifices, I wish I could say the law made our products safer, but the fact is that it hasn’t. Our company, Learning Resources, Inc., has recalled a grand total of 130 pieces in a single recall since our founding in June 1984 (these products were all recovered from the market). Our management of safety risks was highly effective long before the government intervened in our safety processes in 2008. The government’s ‘help’ has not raised our safety game but it has reduced our bottom line and cost some of our employees their jobs.”

CPSC Commissioner Northup testified on the exorbitant costs to small businesses, stating, “In March 2009, Commission staff reported that the economic costs associated with the CPSIA would be ‘in the billions of dollars range.’… Small businesses without the market clout to demand that suppliers provide compliant materials have been hit the hardest. Many report that the new compliance and testing costs have caused them to cut jobs, reduce product lines, leave the children’s market completely, or close… According to a brief small business analysis by our agency, the cost to test one toy could range from $3,712 to $7,348 – not taking into account that the toy will likely change to stay competitive for the next Christmas season, or sooner, and every material change triggers a whole new set of tests.”

Jolie Fay, owner of Skipping Hippos, which makes handmade children’s ponchos provided some emotional testimony, stating, “Our businesses were born from the desire for safe children’s products. We make them with care and attention, most often from materials purchased from our local craft stores. Our dreams were to build heritage products that will be cherished and remembered, and saved for generations… The CPSIA makes no provision for these businesses to be able to operate.”

Fay went on to elaborate on the challenges that confront many small businesses. “For example, at the Hollywood Senior Center in Portland, there is a small retail shop. The items in the shop are exclusively made by their members. Handmade trucks and planes are made by retired loggers in their 70’s and 80’s. They are on an incredibly small fixed income and would never be able to afford a single ASTM laboratory test. The workmanship that has developed over a lifetime helps contribute a small, but very substantial supplement to their monthly income. These projects keep them active and give them meaning to each day. These are artisans, but this law makes them criminals.”

Chairman Upton, who pledged to address the problem, stated, “We all care deeply about our children and their safety – nearly every one of us on this dais has a child or grandchild. No one wants to put little children at risk. But this law may be doing exactly that. By dictating so much of the Commission’s work, in too many cases we have shifted its attention to products that pose little or no risk and away from more significant issues. At the same time, we have deprived the Commission of the flexibility to develop common-sense solutions to the problems of implementation. The retroactive effect of the law has caused the Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries and thrift stores across the land to destroy used products, including even winter clothing that is sorely needed by millions of American children.”

Read more here:
CPSIA – Committee Press Release About CPSIA Hearing

CPSIA – Dan Marshall of HTA is Profiled in WSJ

Dan Marshall of Peapod Natural Toys and Baby Care in St. Paul, MN and founder of the Handmade Toy Alliance, was profiled in Saturday’s WSJ in an article entitled “Small Crafts v. Big Government“.

Let me give you a hint who is winning . . . it has the initials “B.G.”

Here is the body of the article:

This is a story about artisanal cheese and hand-polished wooden toys, organic spinach and exquisitely smocked baby dresses—the burgeoning small-scale economy so beloved by members of the “creative class.” But it’s also about another, much-discussed growth industry: the production of political cynicism among formerly idealistic Americans.

The story begins in 2007, an unusually good year for Peapods Natural Toys and Baby Care, in St. Paul, Minn., and many similar mom-and-pop businesses. Frightened by news that toys made in China contained unsafe levels of lead, customers were looking for alternatives to the usual big-box offerings. Just as organic farmers gain market share whenever there’s a food-safety panic, the lead scare boosted sales of artisanal children’s goods. “People wanted made-in-USA products, and we were the only place in town that had them,” says Dan Marshall, the owner of Peapods.

Vendors offering organic materials and a personal touch seemed poised to prosper. But the short-term boon soon turned into a long-term disaster. In response to the lead panic, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, or CPSIA, by an overwhelming majority. The law mandates third-party testing and detailed labels not only for toys but for every single product aimed at children 12 and under.

“It’s everything from shoes to hair bows, Boy Scout patches and bicycles—it’s everything,” says Mr. Marshall. But few people producing or selling artisanal kids’ products even realized that the CPSIA applied to them until months after President George W. Bush had signed it. By then it was too late.

Although big companies like Mattel could spread the extra costs over millions of toys, Mr. Marshall’s small-scale suppliers couldn’t. Unable to afford thousands of dollars in testing per product, some went out of business. Others moved production to China to cut costs. Many slashed their product lines, reserving the expensive new tests for only their top sellers. The European companies that used to sell Peapods such specialty items as wooden swords and shields or beeswax-finished cherry-wood rattles simply abandoned the U.S. market. The survivors jacked up prices.

Mr. Marshall and other entrepreneurs formed the Handmade Toy Alliance to try to get the law changed, without success. “When Ron Paul’s the only guy who votes against something it’s really hard to go back and fix it,” says Mr. Marshall, exaggerating only slightly. Neither political officials nor the mainstream media have been especially sympathetic.

“I’m a lot more cynical than I was,” says Cecilia Leibovitz, who owns Craftsbury Kids, an online shop selling handmade toys and children’s clothes, and also leads the CPSIA discussion group among Etsy.com’s online sellers. Mostly individuals producing one-of-a-kind items, Etsy crafters find it especially hard to comply with, or even interpret, the law’s requirements.

By contrast, consider the recently enacted Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act. Like the CPSIA, it establishes expensive new labeling, record-keeping, inspection and reporting requirements. But, unlike the CPSIA, it carves out an exception for small operations.

The reason for the exemption is not that small farms are safer than big ones. It’s that a vocal, established and well-connected interest group didn’t want the law to put small farmers out of business.

Agriculture is a highly politicized industry, and proponents of small-scale farming are organized, ideological, and well represented in the elite media. Buying handmade toys may be nice, but eating produce from the farmer’s market is a quasi-religious ritual of group identity. The exemption is what Michael Pollan, the best-selling author and leading locavore, calls “a very important signal—that this is a different economy and it’s going to play by slightly different rules.”

Other artisanal businesses have gotten a less supportive signal. It’s not enough, they’ve learned, to light a single hand-poured beeswax candle rather than curse the mass-market darkness. Unless you have the right protection, Congress can easily snuff it out.

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CPSIA – Dan Marshall of HTA is Profiled in WSJ

CPSIA – John Stuart Mill and Crib Safety

“I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.”

John Stuart Mill
1828

The CPSC recently congratulated itself for banning drop-side cribs. Scott Wolfson clucked on Twitter: “RT @Scott_wolfson: The lifesaving crib rules approved by #CPSC today are a key part of the #CPSIA. #CPSC wants all babies to have a #safesleep.” Other people, like Rep. Jan Schakowsky, also rushed forward to take credit for this change in regulation.

To judge from these press releases, a real crisis in public safety has been addressed. Is that true?

Wasn’t it Winston Churchill who once said that history is written by the victors???

I have not touched the crib issue previously because, frankly, it’s too hot to handle. Who would want to defend a product associated with baby deaths? There but for the grace of G-d goes I. On the other hand, the projected compliance expense of $550 million is breathtaking, particularly given the fact that the agency’s ruling is both retroactive and mandates replacement of cribs in certain childcare facilities. Even Commissioner Robert Adler calls this expansion of the CPSC’s role as “uncharted territory“. This sets a new precedent for government (CPSC) intrusion that I find troubling, even under these circumstances.

The always astute Lenore Skenazy questions the CPSC’s justification of three fatalities a year linked to drop-side cribs. She labels herself “subversive” for looking at the numbers. [You know you were thinking it, admit it!] Based on the injury figures released by the CPSC, she notes that the deaths attributed to drop-side cribs are less than those attributed to spider bites (five per year). She puts the drop-side crib-related deaths in the context of 4 million births per year and asks where the limit is in our effort to save ourselves.

Skenazy rattles off many other death statistics (such as 1,300 per year from stair falls) for further perspective on the scale of the drop-side crib “crisis”. She does not discuss pool deaths, which number between 1-2 per day and generate 11-12 childhood emergency room treatments for serious injuries daily. But the obsession of this CPSC is drop-side cribs, so we should not worry about those other things . . . .

Lenore makes a good point. What IS the limit? And how much should we pay? Is this really a public health crisis, and if it is, aren’t all those other causes of childhood deaths similarly a crisis? Who gets to decide which crisis is our top priority?

As J.S. Mill points out, despair sells well so we are naturally inclined to accept on face value the shrill self-congratulations of the politicians who are so busy making us so safe. I have been battling the same self-justifications and self-praise by politicians and consumer “advocates” over lead for three years. Does the absence of injury statistics matter to anyone?

Interestingly, the CPSC provides some context on its crib decision. If you read through the document announcing the change, you will find out a few interesting tidbits:

• Despite Ms. Schakowsky’s claim to have created this regulatory storm, the industry has been working on standards for many years. ASTM F 1169–10, the full-size crib standard, was originally published in 1999 and has been revised several times since 1999, including 2010. The same can be said of the voluntary standards for non-full-size cribs. The statement in the CPSC press release noting that “[t]he federal crib standards had not been updated in nearly 30 years” is pretty misleading – the voluntary standards relied upon by the agency and the industry have been regularly revised. [Until this administration took over, the CPSC relied on voluntary standards as a matter of public policy.] Even more remarkably, please note that the current CPSC action adopts these voluntary standards as the new mandatory standards with minimal amendments, calling the adopted standards “substantially the same” as the voluntary standards. Hmmm.
• The CPSC initially issued mandatory standards for cribs in 1973 and amended them in 1982. There has been on-and-off activity at the agency in the ensuing years. Crib safety was not a new subject to the Commission when Ms. Schakowsky announced the latest crisis. Ms. Schakowsky didn’t solve the crisis either when she purportedly wrote this provision of the CPSIA. Is it actually certain that there ever was a crisis in drop-side cribs . . . or was Ms. Schakowsky simply looking to bulk up her hagiography?
• Annual sales of cribs are estimated at 2.4 million per year, including non-full-size cribs (approximately 300K per year). Thus, over 11 years (2000-2010), that’s 32 deaths and an estimated 26.4 million cribs sold and 40 million babies born. Crisis? There are approximately 591 models of full-size cribs and 81 non-full-size cribs on the U.S. market, according to the CPSC. In recent years, the CPSC has recalled 11 million “dangerous” cribs defect” since 2007 (about 40% of the estimated total sales in the last 11 years).
• A pilot CPSC project of data gathering on crib injuries from November 1, 2007 to April 11, 2010 generated a total of 3,584 “incidents”, including 147 deaths associated with full-size cribs. Some of these incidents go back as far as 1986, btw. Of the 147 fatalities, 107 were not related to any structural defect in any way. Of the 35 fatalities related to “structural problems”, 18 were related to drop-side cribs. [The CPSC document contains a detailed analysis of the injuries, as well.] So of entire pool of fatalities from cribs in this period, 18 of 147 were related to drop-side cribs in some way – 12% of the total fatalities. The CPSC press release somehow omitted this additional fact.

This data cannot be correlated to the December 17 CPSC press release in which they note 32 deaths since 2000 (11 years). There is no data provided on the AGE, CONDITION or QUALITY of the cribs involved in the deaths, no information on the MAINTENANCE or STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY of those cribs or whether the hardware failure was apparent or not. In its May 7th press release, the CPSC notes however that the 32 deaths include “some [fatalities which] occurred in cribs where the drop side detached without caregivers noticing the detachment, while some other deaths occurred after a consumer tried to repair the detached drop side, but the repair ultimately failed.” [Check out the photos to see what a consumer "repair" might look like.] No quantification whatsoever. Arguably, this CPSC statement suggests that any solution to the problem involves, in whole or in part, user education.

The CPSC did not supply data to distinguish between product failures/defects and parental or caregiver error or misuse. It’s all laid at the feet of the crib design. The CPSC’s “analysis” is pretty simple – you don’t need drop-sides for your baby to sleep comfortably in a crib, and if we eliminate drop-sides from the market, presumably a certain number of unnecessary infant deaths can be avoided. It’s a presumption, however.

It’s hard to argue with their logic but it’s also hard to know what has been accomplished. We do know that the ban of drop-side cribs costs a lot of money, however. Isn’t that relevant, even a little bit? If user education is essential to ANY “solution”, how do we know we have spent our $550 million well or achieved anything whatsoever? The precise mechanism leading to the fatalities cannot be determined from the paltry data released to the public. Table pounding by advocates is, regrettably, not data. As Mr. J.S. Mill notes, the advocates’ histrionics are likely to be taken as “sage” in this case. What if we knew that ten years out, the replacement cribs caused the same number of deaths or perhaps even MORE deaths? The rate of fatalities in these cribs in already remarkably low. How can we be sure that the new cribs will be better? Should we just take Nancy Cowles’ word for it?

I find it interesting that the crib industry has been rather quiet on this change in rules. There are literally dozens of suppliers of cribs in this country, and more than 11 million units have been recalled. Why such quiet from these companies? I suspect the reason is that most consumer do not blame the brands for these recalls, and few people are motivated to return their cribs. [That includes me. Consumer advocates label recalls "unsuccessful" when we the people don't do what they want us to do.] So the cost of the recalls is probably modest BUT the government is mandating that $550 million be spent by childcare providers on NEW cribs. Why would crib manufacturers object to this cost-effective stimulus plan?! Surely many people taking the old drop-side crib out of the attic will say “Whoa, that was recalled. I better buy a new one . . . .” Many, many people.

Thank you, CPSC, for making us so darned safe! The crib industry probably loves you (secretly). Not so sure about hotels and childcare providers. Ultimately I know who pays for all this, however, and it isn’t the consumer advocates or the regulators. It’s the guy who stares back at you from your bathroom mirror.

The CPSC for its part did something easy and self-serving: they saved us from yet another lurking danger that none of us could see, all at our expense. I wonder if the CPSC would be as enthusiastic in their actions if they had to pay for it out of their own budget (or pocket). The money they spend is OURS, and they never even need to steady their hand to write the check. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s much easier to spend someone else’s money, especially when there are a lot of zeroes involved. The CPSC is making us do it for our own good. Does anyone see a problem here?

The new rule sets dangerous new standards for CPSC (government) intrusion into our businesses and into our lives. The CPSC’s action means that the Commission thinks it’s now okay to take retroactive action with impunity. This is a BIG change in regulatory policy. Bob Adler notes: “The Commission has never before entered into a rulemaking, whether or not required by Congress, that not only has retroactive applicability, but also requires the replacement of every product in a given product class – particularly in an occupational setting like child care facilities.” OMG – and this is okay . . . why??? Because he says it’s a crisis and it’s important to do.

This is government power without restraint, and it’s a serious issue. This is much more serious that drop-side crib deaths. I do not know how to run a business in a market regulated by people who make up the rules to suit their mood. I thought there were protections against this.

Let’s hope Mr. Adler and his associates made a good judgment for all of us. They are spending our money and we have no choice but to do as we’re told. That’s “government of the people, by the people, for the people” nowadays, I guess.

I wonder what Abe Lincoln would think of this government . . . .

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CPSIA – John Stuart Mill and Crib Safety

CPSIA – Hey Sucker!

801 days have passed since ANY Democrat in Congress did ANYTHING to help us on the CPSIA. There are only 9 days left until Election Day.

Consider this note I received today from a friend:

“Thought you’d like to know that i received a check in the mail today from Uncle Sam’s new Affordable Care Act to help cover the cost of my Medicare drugs in the amount of $250. Mind you, this one-time gift arrived just eleven days prior to election and, to me, an obvious bribe to receive my endorsement of their plan. Hope this backfires on them as I am immediately turning this check back to Joel Pollak in the form of my contribution in the same amount. Hope it helps the last few days of his successful campaign.” [Emphasis added.]

The Affordable Care Act is Dem-sponsored legislation designed to ameliorate the “donut hole” that Seniors experience in drug coverage under Medicare. I am sure this is a real problem. That said, the arrival of this check magically two weeks before the election is just one more bit of evidence of the privilege taken by Congress and the White House to award themselves gifts in even-numbered years to ensure reelection. The real question is “how dumb are we?”

Please note that the CPSIA was just such a gift. Passed almost unanimously on August 14, 2008 right ahead of the 2008 election season, the CPSIA allowed every member of Congress to blunt accusations that they were “soft” on Chinese toys. Not unlike so many other pieces of complex legislation passed by Nancy Pelosi’s Congress, our esteemed members of Congress apparently never read the bill which covered soup-to-nuts in Children’s Products, not just toys. Even today, you can find Congressmen expressing surprise and alarm that the law covered anything other than toys.

Duping members of Congress must seem like child’s play to devious staffers. After all, they know the members can’t or won’t read their handiwork. We call that the “political process”.

Some people ask me why I cut the Republicans such a “break” by attacking only Democrats on this law. Didn’t all the Republicans vote for the law, too? By and large, that’s true. However, since passage of the CPSIA, many Republicans have stood up and tried to help us. They have allied with my efforts and have gone to considerable effort, not to mention taken political risk, to address a Congressional screw-up that imperils Small Business without any corresponding safety benefit for consumers. Has every Republican member of Congress helped us? No. However, ZERO Democrats have lifted a finger to help us and most have scorned us publicly and privately. The Democrats who were put in charge of the CPSC are perhaps the MOST insensitive and the most strident in their political posturing.

Until the Democrats DEMONSTRATE that they can be trusted, which for me will take quite a bit of work on their part, I have NO interest in giving them a pass. The Republicans have EARNED my support. I hope you are not susceptible to bribes or other trickery by the party in control. Your business and your markets hang in the balance. Assess the situation clearly and pick sides. It’s now or never!

Read more here:
CPSIA – Hey Sucker!

CPSIA – Tune in to Fox News on Monday AM

790 days have passed since ANY Democrat in Congress did ANYTHING to help us on the CPSIA. There are only 20 days left until Election Day.

I am scheduled to appear on Fox News “Fox & Family” program on Monday at 6:15 AM EST to discuss the CPSIA and my involvement in politics as a means to address our many CPSIA problems.

Let’s set some Nielsen ratings records for Fox on Monday!

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CPSIA – Tune in to Fox News on Monday AM

CPSIA – RW on The Laura Ingraham Show re CPSIA

789 days have passed since ANY Democrat in Congress did ANYTHING to help us on the CPSIA. There are only 21 days left until Election Day.

I was interviewed today on The Laura Ingraham Show. To listen to this interview, just click HERE.

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CPSIA – RW on The Laura Ingraham Show re CPSIA

CPSIA – RW on The Laura Ingraham Show re CPSIA

789 days have passed since ANY Democrat in Congress did ANYTHING to help us on the CPSIA. There are only 21 days left until Election Day.

I was interviewed today on The Laura Ingraham Show. To listen to this interview, just click HERE.

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CPSIA – RW on The Laura Ingraham Show re CPSIA

CPSIA – WSJ Radio Interview of RW re CPSIA

789 days have passed since ANY Democrat in Congress did ANYTHING to help us on the CPSIA. There are only 21 days left until Election Day.

The WSJ today released a radio interview in which I discussed my opposition to the CPSIA and my recent political awakenings. I hope you will give it a listen: Click HERE.

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CPSIA – WSJ Radio Interview of RW re CPSIA

CPSIA – WSJ Profiles RW in Article on Business Backlash

POLITICS
OCTOBER 12, 2010

Business Backlash Grows

By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON

VERNON HILLS, Ill.—Rick Woldenberg runs an educational-products company from a suburban Chicago office stacked with brightly colored toys. He supported President Barack Obama in 2008. But he has turned on Democrats this year.

Sally Ryan for The Wall Street Journal

Rick Woldenberg, chairman of Learning Resources in Chicago, backed President Barack Obama in 2008 but is now raising money for Republicans.

Mr. Woldenberg is angry that Congress and the Obama administration won’t revise expansive new rules on lead testing in children’s products that he says will kill his business, Learning Resources Inc. So he is raising money for Republicans among Chicago business owners to help the GOP—so much money that he is rattling the incumbent in what has been one of the safest Democratic seats in Mr. Obama’s home state.

“If Democrats are going to put me out of business, I’m going to put them out of business first,” he said.

Disaffected business owners like Mr. Woldenberg have emerged as a potent force in the 2010 campaign. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which plans to spend $75 million in this election cycle, says it has exceeded its targets for raising money from small businesses every quarter this year, despite the poor economy. More small-business candidates are running for public office than at any time in a generation, say officials at the National Federation of Independent Business, the capital’s chief small-business lobby.

Business contributions are fueling campaign efforts by conservative and business groups, which are gearing up to spend as much as $300 million to help Republicans this fall.

Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats have wooed small-business owners with a series of tax breaks and a $30 billion lending program that was the centerpiece of a Small Business Jobs Act Mr. Obama signed last week at a White House ceremony attended by a group of supportive entrepreneurs.

But many small-business owners still fault Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats for what they see as a costly explosion of new rules and regulations.

“I think Obama ran as more of a moderate, and business people here are now realizing that this huge expansion of government is not sustainable,” said Leo Dombrowski, an attorney at Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP in Chicago, whose clients are fighting new environmental rules.

Mr. Woldenberg has helped raise more than $470,000 for Joel Pollak, a 32-year old Harvard Law School graduate who is challenging Rep. Jan Schakowsky in Chicago’s 9th district, a friend of Mr. Obama who is an author and ardent defender of the new children’s-product lead law. That’s 20 times more than any Republican has ever raised for a run against Ms. Schakowsky, who won 75% of the vote in the last election and is vying for a 7th term.

“This is a war,” he said. “Individuals can make a difference, and I want my kids to see it.”

Over the past few months, Mr. Pollak said, he and Mr. Woldenberg have been trying to tap into “donors residing outside the district with a strong business or personal motivation.” The Pollak campaign scored a fundraising appearance by Republican economic policy star Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Mr. Pollak took the podium and pointed out Schakowsky campaign manager Alex Armour, who was in the crowd videotaping the event.

Ms. Schakowsky is polling at slightly more than 60%, according to her internal polls, a solid lead but narrower than in the past. The campaign has hired four field staffers for the first time, and is sending less money to Democrats in closer races.

“I’m not worried about it, but I’m taking it seriously,” she said. Ms. Schakowsky said Mr. Woldenberg’s success as a fundraiser, is proof that “very cynical … special interests are highly engaged in the campaign.”

As for the lead law, she said she was proud of it. “The goal is to save children from toys that are toxic.”

Mr. Woldenberg’s efforts include addressing 130 people in a Holiday Inn ballroom in suburban Skokie, Ill., during Mr. Pollak’s “Chicagoland Business Breakfast” in late September.

He held up a “box of rocks,” the company’s igneous rock collection kit, and read its new consumer warning.

“Caution: federal law requires us to advise that the rocks in this educational product may contain lead and might be harmful if swallowed,’” he read, to laughter.

“This is humiliating,” he said, ticking off the costs of the law. “I’m hoping Joel can help us.”

Two dozen attendees took the microphone, voicing concerns with health-care, tax, environmental and workplace rules. They included Jay Stieber, vice president of restaurant chain Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc., and chairman of the Illinois Restaurant Association, who has his headquarters in the 9th district. He and his family have contributed the maximum $4,800 to Mr. Pollak.

“The hospitality industry is the biggest employer in Illinois, and my partners and I have been lifelong Democrats,” he said, but changed sides because “I can’t stand here and tell you what health-care is going to cost.”

Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com

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CPSIA – WSJ Profiles RW in Article on Business Backlash

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