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Election 2002: Labor Walks but Big Money Walks: Unions' Legwork Hurt by Corporate Spending, War Rhet
Months of hard work by CWA and fellow union members helped a number of working family candidates to victory Nov. 5, particularly at the state level, but their efforts couldn’t match unprecedented campaign spending — $710 million — by business interests.
Determined to fight against worker-friendly legislation, roll back job protections and secure yet another tax cut, corporate America spent 12 times as much money in Election 2002 as did all labor unions and other working family advocates combined.
“I’m proud of the effort CWA activists made in campaigns across the country,” said CWA President Morton Bahr. “We had thousands of members, retirees and their families calling voters, handing out leaflets, going door to door and rallying to get people to the polls and help them understand how critical their vote would be. But President Bush’s war rhetoric — and his own war chest of $200 million — distracted voters and delivered the Senate, along with the House to the Republicans.”
Republicans now hold 51 seats in the U.S. Senate, and Democrats have 47. One of Vermont’s seats belongs to Independent Jim Jeffords and a Louisiana race will be settled by a run-off in December.
In the House, Republicans have 228 seats to the Democrat’s 202. One House seat is Independent, two races — in New York and Colorado — were still being counted as the CWA News went to press, and special elections are pending for seats in Louisiana and Hawaii.
In governors’ races, Democrats picked up seats held by Republicans in Arizona, Kansas Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wyoming; won in Maine, where an Independent currently is governor; elected a new Democrat in Oregon; and reelected governors in California, Iowa and New Mexico. Votes in Alabama were still being counted as the CWA News went to press; the outcome of that race will decide whether Democrats have 24 or 25 governor’s seats.
Taking it to the Streets
CWA and others in the labor movement campaigned vigorously for the working-family candidates for governor and Bahr said it paid off, as did the union campaigns in several states with key Senate races: New Jersey, where formerly retired Sen. Frank Lautenberg was sent back to office, in Arkansas where Mark Pryor was elected and in South Dakota and Iowa for incumbent Sens. Tim Johnson and Tom Harkin.
In New Jersey, District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino said CWA locals put more than 1,000 members and retirees on the streets and at polls to get out the vote for Lautenberg and worker-friendly House candidates.
“It was great to win in New Jersey, but devastating to lose the Senate,” Local 1037 President Hetty Rosenstein said. “We’ve got to hang together and regroup and hopefully win big in two years.”
Local 1034 President Carla Katz said her members “hit the ground running this fall and came out in force on election day,” with about 200 volunteers turning out. Rosenstein’s local had 307 members out on Election Day and members made more than 300 pre-election visits to union homes in cooperation with the state AFL-CIO.
Local 1040 President Carolyn Wade said her members got at least three pre-election phone calls and the local had 100 volunteers on Election Day. “Our members told us, ‘I’ll do whatever you need,’” she said. “We were very pleased with that.”
In Iowa, CWA Representative Ken Rains said Local 7102 in Des Moines had more than 40 people across the state working phone banks for Harkin and Gov. Tom Vilsack. “They did an excellent job. CWA and labor played a huge part in our victories here,” he said.
Bahr praised the efforts of members in other states with pivotal Senate races that didn’t turn out as hoped — Missouri, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Minnesota, where former Vice President Walter Mondale stepped in as a last-minute candidate when Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash Oct. 25. “You worked just as tirelessly as our members in places where working family candidates won, and we’re grateful to you,” Bahr said.
Nationally, union members put on the strongest effort ever in a midterm election. According to the AFL-CIO, unions handed out more than 17 million leaflets at worksites, made 5 million phone calls to members, sent 15 million pieces of mail to union homes and put 4,000 political coordinators in the field.
Members Go to the Polls
At least among union families, the effort was fruitful. Even among groups that tend to vote more conservatively — white men, rural residents and gun owners — union members in those groups voted in large percentages for pro-worker candidates, according to a Hart Research poll conducted for the AFL-CIO on election night.
But while union members overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates, they also told polltakers they don’t think either party has a solid plan to strengthen the economy.
“Polls consistently show that Americans’ number-one concern is the economy, but frankly, Democrats failed to articulate a clear and passionate economic message,” Bahr said.
“Democrats needed to be crystal clear about what they stand for, and to present an alternative vision to the country that creates excitement among disenfranchised voters and inspires hope,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, speaking at a post-election news conference. “They weren’t able to do that. To be fair, many Democrats tried mightily. But they were no match for the President.”
Sweeney said AFL-CIO and union leaders would meet over the next few weeks to determine how best to fight for the working family agenda over the next two years. Bahr acknowledged that it will be a challenge and urged members to stay strong.
“For workers concerned about the looted budget surplus, unfair tax breaks and the mounting squeeze on health care, education, Social Security and Medicare, those problems still loom — and they won’t be a priority for a Congress now dominated by corporate interests,” he said. “I call on you to continue to advance our agenda for working people. It will be a harder fight now, but we’ll just fight harder.”
Among the good news on Election Day were the victories by pro-worker candidates for governor. In a New York Times analysis, Paul Glastris, editor of The Washington Monthly, wrote that the “real importance of this election is not at the national level — it’s at the state level.”
“The long-term impact of these votes will be much greater than any marginal change in the makeup of the House or Senate,” he said. “Instead, leadership and innovative policies will come from the states, as they have so often in the past. There’s a reason that four of the five last presidents were former governors, and that only two presidents in the last century were elected directly from the Senate. Successful governors must formulate and enact bold new policies, the best of which often filter up to the national level.”
CWA activists gave it their all in every state with a close race. District 13’s $100,000 contribution and members’ donations of time helped send Democrat Ed Rendell to the Pennslvania governor’s office. Local 13000 President Ed Carr and Local 13500 President Sandy Kymetk were especially helpful to the campaigns, District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano said.
“We sat down and met with Ed Rendell and he made some commitments to us,” Maisano said. “He promised that we’d have a direct line to him on any of our issues and that the state AFL-CIO will play a role in his transition team.”
In Wisconsin, campaign efforts began with training local stewards and other volunteers to get out the vote. CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach and IUE-CWA District 8 President Bruce Van Ess set up the course and the district helped IUE-CWA District 7 President Mike Bindas conduct similar training in Ohio.
Led by CWA Local 4671 Vice President Ann McNeary, chair of CWA’s state political council in Wisconsin, activists canvassed members throughout the state and helped turn out 45 percent of the vote for Democrat Jim Doyle, handing him the governorship over incumbent Scott McCullum and six other candidates.
In Texas, CWA had hoped to send Tony Sanchez to the governor’s office and Ron Kirk, the only African-American Senate candidate, to the U.S. Senate. Claude Cummings, president of Local 6222 in Houston, said in addition to leafleting and knocking on doors, scores of members and retirees worked a phone bank for two weeks before the election.
Further, five stewards took leave from their jobs to work fulltime on the campaigns, as well as a successful U.S. House race. “The effort they put in was tremendous and their involvement was instrumental in getting Chris Bell elected to Congress,” he said. Democrat Bell beat Republican Tim Riser in a race for the vacant seat.
House Victories
In a number of other targeted House races, working-family candidates prevailed with CWA support. They include Raul Grijalva in Arizona, Dennis Cardoza in California, Mike Michaud in Maine, Chris Van Hollen in Maryland, Bennie Thompson in Mississippi, Patrick Kennedy in Rhode Island and Lincoln Davis in Tennessee.
Linda Hatfield, president of Local 7026 in Tucson, said that every weekend since before the primaries her members passed out leaflets for Grijalva, Arizona Gov.-elect Janet Napolitano and 8th District congressional candidate Mary Judge Ryan. Other CWA locals in Arizona worked just as hard.
“We’re going to get two out of three,” Hatfield predicted correctly just days before the election. She was right. Only Ryan’s bid fell short.
In the Southeast, District 3 CWA and IUE-CWA locals in Mississippi helped re-elect Thompson and tried hard to send Democrat Ronnie Shows to Congress. Members turned out for a debate, banquet and other events.
Maryland and Washington, D.C., locals played a big role in electing Van Hollen, one of only two Democratic challengers to unseat incumbent Republicans in the House. Van Hollen will replace Connie Morrella, a locally respected moderate, in Maryland’s 8th District.
“Morella always gave us good local representation,” said David Herron, a Local 2108 steward who worked full time on Van Hollen’s campaign and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s bid for governor. “But on the national level, Van Hollen will be able to give us a voice in Congress that we didn’t have with Morella.”
Herron’s local and Local 2336 in the District sent a large delegation to a Townsend/Van Hollen rally on Oct. 31, and members also put in long hours of legwork and phone work, including home visits.
Herron, who went door-to-door with Steward Shirley Thompson, said people seemed to appreciate the personal effort. “In other campaigns I worked on, people didn’t want to hear from you, but this time when you identified yourself with the AFL-CIO, it made a connection with the members,” he said.
The efforts of Baltimore locals helped elect Democrat C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger to the House seat vacated by Republican Bob Erlich, who defeated Townsend for governor. About 40 members of Local 2102 registered voters, worked phone banks and put up yard signs. The local also contributed funds to the working family candidates’ campaigns, as CWA members and locals did across the country for races in their areas.
“It was a real sadness yesterday,” Local 2101 Executive Vice President Gloria Pack said about Townsend’s loss. “But we feel very good about Dutch’s victory. We know we’re going to have someone in the House who’s not going to forget us.”
In Modesto, Calif., Local 9418 loaned Secretary-Treasurer Mickey Cox to the county’s central labor council to work full time for House candidate Dennis Cardoza. Cox’s work, and members’ precinct walks and phone calls helped Cardoza defeat Republican Dick Monteith for the seat vacated by Gary Condit after a year of scandal.
“He brings some stability to our area, he’s very friendly, and he worked well with all the unions,” Local 9418 President Lynn Johnson said.
Larraine Darrington, administrative assistant to District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, said several hundred CWA members across California worked with their labor councils, made calls from phone banks in their union halls and volunteered on various campaigns. “Statewide, we did well,” she said, noting the reelection of Gov. Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte, along with several other successful races.
Some victories didn’t register on the national radar, but were important nonetheless. Cummings said labor scored a big victory by electing a pro-worker candidate to the Harris County Commission in Houston — a Hispanic woman who he said is the first woman ever elected to the board. What’s a small race to the rest of the country can directly affect workers in a particular community, he said.
“It is so important that we become involved locally,” he said. “That way we can have the political influence needed to enact legislation and affect decisions at the state and local levels that are going to help working people.”
Determined to fight against worker-friendly legislation, roll back job protections and secure yet another tax cut, corporate America spent 12 times as much money in Election 2002 as did all labor unions and other working family advocates combined.
“I’m proud of the effort CWA activists made in campaigns across the country,” said CWA President Morton Bahr. “We had thousands of members, retirees and their families calling voters, handing out leaflets, going door to door and rallying to get people to the polls and help them understand how critical their vote would be. But President Bush’s war rhetoric — and his own war chest of $200 million — distracted voters and delivered the Senate, along with the House to the Republicans.”
Republicans now hold 51 seats in the U.S. Senate, and Democrats have 47. One of Vermont’s seats belongs to Independent Jim Jeffords and a Louisiana race will be settled by a run-off in December.
In the House, Republicans have 228 seats to the Democrat’s 202. One House seat is Independent, two races — in New York and Colorado — were still being counted as the CWA News went to press, and special elections are pending for seats in Louisiana and Hawaii.
In governors’ races, Democrats picked up seats held by Republicans in Arizona, Kansas Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wyoming; won in Maine, where an Independent currently is governor; elected a new Democrat in Oregon; and reelected governors in California, Iowa and New Mexico. Votes in Alabama were still being counted as the CWA News went to press; the outcome of that race will decide whether Democrats have 24 or 25 governor’s seats.
Taking it to the Streets
CWA and others in the labor movement campaigned vigorously for the working-family candidates for governor and Bahr said it paid off, as did the union campaigns in several states with key Senate races: New Jersey, where formerly retired Sen. Frank Lautenberg was sent back to office, in Arkansas where Mark Pryor was elected and in South Dakota and Iowa for incumbent Sens. Tim Johnson and Tom Harkin.
In New Jersey, District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino said CWA locals put more than 1,000 members and retirees on the streets and at polls to get out the vote for Lautenberg and worker-friendly House candidates.
“It was great to win in New Jersey, but devastating to lose the Senate,” Local 1037 President Hetty Rosenstein said. “We’ve got to hang together and regroup and hopefully win big in two years.”
Local 1034 President Carla Katz said her members “hit the ground running this fall and came out in force on election day,” with about 200 volunteers turning out. Rosenstein’s local had 307 members out on Election Day and members made more than 300 pre-election visits to union homes in cooperation with the state AFL-CIO.
Local 1040 President Carolyn Wade said her members got at least three pre-election phone calls and the local had 100 volunteers on Election Day. “Our members told us, ‘I’ll do whatever you need,’” she said. “We were very pleased with that.”
In Iowa, CWA Representative Ken Rains said Local 7102 in Des Moines had more than 40 people across the state working phone banks for Harkin and Gov. Tom Vilsack. “They did an excellent job. CWA and labor played a huge part in our victories here,” he said.
Bahr praised the efforts of members in other states with pivotal Senate races that didn’t turn out as hoped — Missouri, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Minnesota, where former Vice President Walter Mondale stepped in as a last-minute candidate when Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash Oct. 25. “You worked just as tirelessly as our members in places where working family candidates won, and we’re grateful to you,” Bahr said.
Nationally, union members put on the strongest effort ever in a midterm election. According to the AFL-CIO, unions handed out more than 17 million leaflets at worksites, made 5 million phone calls to members, sent 15 million pieces of mail to union homes and put 4,000 political coordinators in the field.
Members Go to the Polls
At least among union families, the effort was fruitful. Even among groups that tend to vote more conservatively — white men, rural residents and gun owners — union members in those groups voted in large percentages for pro-worker candidates, according to a Hart Research poll conducted for the AFL-CIO on election night.
But while union members overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates, they also told polltakers they don’t think either party has a solid plan to strengthen the economy.
“Polls consistently show that Americans’ number-one concern is the economy, but frankly, Democrats failed to articulate a clear and passionate economic message,” Bahr said.
“Democrats needed to be crystal clear about what they stand for, and to present an alternative vision to the country that creates excitement among disenfranchised voters and inspires hope,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, speaking at a post-election news conference. “They weren’t able to do that. To be fair, many Democrats tried mightily. But they were no match for the President.”
Sweeney said AFL-CIO and union leaders would meet over the next few weeks to determine how best to fight for the working family agenda over the next two years. Bahr acknowledged that it will be a challenge and urged members to stay strong.
“For workers concerned about the looted budget surplus, unfair tax breaks and the mounting squeeze on health care, education, Social Security and Medicare, those problems still loom — and they won’t be a priority for a Congress now dominated by corporate interests,” he said. “I call on you to continue to advance our agenda for working people. It will be a harder fight now, but we’ll just fight harder.”
Among the good news on Election Day were the victories by pro-worker candidates for governor. In a New York Times analysis, Paul Glastris, editor of The Washington Monthly, wrote that the “real importance of this election is not at the national level — it’s at the state level.”
“The long-term impact of these votes will be much greater than any marginal change in the makeup of the House or Senate,” he said. “Instead, leadership and innovative policies will come from the states, as they have so often in the past. There’s a reason that four of the five last presidents were former governors, and that only two presidents in the last century were elected directly from the Senate. Successful governors must formulate and enact bold new policies, the best of which often filter up to the national level.”
CWA activists gave it their all in every state with a close race. District 13’s $100,000 contribution and members’ donations of time helped send Democrat Ed Rendell to the Pennslvania governor’s office. Local 13000 President Ed Carr and Local 13500 President Sandy Kymetk were especially helpful to the campaigns, District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano said.
“We sat down and met with Ed Rendell and he made some commitments to us,” Maisano said. “He promised that we’d have a direct line to him on any of our issues and that the state AFL-CIO will play a role in his transition team.”
In Wisconsin, campaign efforts began with training local stewards and other volunteers to get out the vote. CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach and IUE-CWA District 8 President Bruce Van Ess set up the course and the district helped IUE-CWA District 7 President Mike Bindas conduct similar training in Ohio.
Led by CWA Local 4671 Vice President Ann McNeary, chair of CWA’s state political council in Wisconsin, activists canvassed members throughout the state and helped turn out 45 percent of the vote for Democrat Jim Doyle, handing him the governorship over incumbent Scott McCullum and six other candidates.
In Texas, CWA had hoped to send Tony Sanchez to the governor’s office and Ron Kirk, the only African-American Senate candidate, to the U.S. Senate. Claude Cummings, president of Local 6222 in Houston, said in addition to leafleting and knocking on doors, scores of members and retirees worked a phone bank for two weeks before the election.
Further, five stewards took leave from their jobs to work fulltime on the campaigns, as well as a successful U.S. House race. “The effort they put in was tremendous and their involvement was instrumental in getting Chris Bell elected to Congress,” he said. Democrat Bell beat Republican Tim Riser in a race for the vacant seat.
House Victories
In a number of other targeted House races, working-family candidates prevailed with CWA support. They include Raul Grijalva in Arizona, Dennis Cardoza in California, Mike Michaud in Maine, Chris Van Hollen in Maryland, Bennie Thompson in Mississippi, Patrick Kennedy in Rhode Island and Lincoln Davis in Tennessee.
Linda Hatfield, president of Local 7026 in Tucson, said that every weekend since before the primaries her members passed out leaflets for Grijalva, Arizona Gov.-elect Janet Napolitano and 8th District congressional candidate Mary Judge Ryan. Other CWA locals in Arizona worked just as hard.
“We’re going to get two out of three,” Hatfield predicted correctly just days before the election. She was right. Only Ryan’s bid fell short.
In the Southeast, District 3 CWA and IUE-CWA locals in Mississippi helped re-elect Thompson and tried hard to send Democrat Ronnie Shows to Congress. Members turned out for a debate, banquet and other events.
Maryland and Washington, D.C., locals played a big role in electing Van Hollen, one of only two Democratic challengers to unseat incumbent Republicans in the House. Van Hollen will replace Connie Morrella, a locally respected moderate, in Maryland’s 8th District.
“Morella always gave us good local representation,” said David Herron, a Local 2108 steward who worked full time on Van Hollen’s campaign and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s bid for governor. “But on the national level, Van Hollen will be able to give us a voice in Congress that we didn’t have with Morella.”
Herron’s local and Local 2336 in the District sent a large delegation to a Townsend/Van Hollen rally on Oct. 31, and members also put in long hours of legwork and phone work, including home visits.
Herron, who went door-to-door with Steward Shirley Thompson, said people seemed to appreciate the personal effort. “In other campaigns I worked on, people didn’t want to hear from you, but this time when you identified yourself with the AFL-CIO, it made a connection with the members,” he said.
The efforts of Baltimore locals helped elect Democrat C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger to the House seat vacated by Republican Bob Erlich, who defeated Townsend for governor. About 40 members of Local 2102 registered voters, worked phone banks and put up yard signs. The local also contributed funds to the working family candidates’ campaigns, as CWA members and locals did across the country for races in their areas.
“It was a real sadness yesterday,” Local 2101 Executive Vice President Gloria Pack said about Townsend’s loss. “But we feel very good about Dutch’s victory. We know we’re going to have someone in the House who’s not going to forget us.”
In Modesto, Calif., Local 9418 loaned Secretary-Treasurer Mickey Cox to the county’s central labor council to work full time for House candidate Dennis Cardoza. Cox’s work, and members’ precinct walks and phone calls helped Cardoza defeat Republican Dick Monteith for the seat vacated by Gary Condit after a year of scandal.
“He brings some stability to our area, he’s very friendly, and he worked well with all the unions,” Local 9418 President Lynn Johnson said.
Larraine Darrington, administrative assistant to District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, said several hundred CWA members across California worked with their labor councils, made calls from phone banks in their union halls and volunteered on various campaigns. “Statewide, we did well,” she said, noting the reelection of Gov. Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte, along with several other successful races.
Some victories didn’t register on the national radar, but were important nonetheless. Cummings said labor scored a big victory by electing a pro-worker candidate to the Harris County Commission in Houston — a Hispanic woman who he said is the first woman ever elected to the board. What’s a small race to the rest of the country can directly affect workers in a particular community, he said.
“It is so important that we become involved locally,” he said. “That way we can have the political influence needed to enact legislation and affect decisions at the state and local levels that are going to help working people.”