ELECTION—Labor Union Tactics Pay Off on Election Day

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Local organized labor again flexed its muscle during last week’s general elections, racking up a string of victories against only a handful of losses in congressional and state legislative races, as well as in state and local initiatives.

“Labor had a very good day last week,” said local political analyst Richard Lichtenstein. “Their victories reaffirm that the labor movement in Southern California is alive and well and has to be a major component in any subsequent political equations.”

Led by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, local unions organized volunteer precinct walkers and phone banks, sent out mailers and raised money for Democratic candidates and several initiatives.

“The get-out-the-vote operations that labor put together were very impressive,” said Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Research at UCLA. “The precinct walkers were everywhere, as were the phone bank operations and the mailers.”

The end result: labor-backed Democratic candidates knocked off two Republican incumbent L.A.-area congressmen and increased the Democrats’ hold on the state Legislature. Labor also opposed two major initiatives that went down to huge defeats: a statewide school voucher measure and a living wage measure in Santa Monica designed to head off a broader living wage proposal.

Given this string of victories, local political and labor observers expect labor’s influence to be even more pronounced in the upcoming citywide elections in April and June, when the mayor’s post and half the City Council seats are up for votes.

“Labor’s hand has been strengthened for the citywide elections,” Wong said. “Even Republicans now realize they can’t ignore labor’s influence on the political process.”

At the top of labor’s target list for last week’s election were three L.A.-area congressional seats held by Republican incumbents: James Rogan (Glendale-Pasadena), Steve Kuykendall (South Bay) and Steve Horn (Long Beach).

Because the party margin was so narrow in the House of Representatives, these races especially for the Rogan and Kuykendall seats drew national attention and dollars.

“Knocking off those Republicans was our highest priority,” said Miguel Contreras, executive secretary and treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Labor-backed candidates Jane Harman and Adam Schiff won two of the races, and a third labor-backed candidate, Gerrie Schipske, came within a whisker (1 percentage point) of defeating Horn.

Lower down the ladder, the County Federation of Labor targeted many state legislative districts with close races, Contreras said.

Among the victories: incumbent state Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, fought back a challenge from Republican L.A. City Councilman Rudy Svorinich; and state Assemblyman Jack Scott defeated Republican Paul Zee to win the state Senate seat vacated by Schiff.

In all of these races, Contreras said, hundreds of union volunteers fanned out to walk the precincts, man phone banks and send out mailers.

“We realized early on that the most effective campaigns involve union members talking to other union members,” Contreras said. “We started back on Labor Day going to union meetings and urging our members to volunteer to walk precincts.”

He added that the recent round of strikes that swept through L.A. also helped mobilize union volunteers.

Last week’s elections also validated primary victories for several labor-backed Democratic candidates. Among these: State Sen. Hilda Solis, who won election to Congress last week; State Assemblyman Jack Scott, who moved up to the state Senate last week; and West Hollywood City Councilman Paul Koretz, who won election to the state Assembly last week.

These victories helped push up the Democrat majorities in both houses of the state Legislature. Democrats now control 50 seats in the 80-member Assembly and 27 in the 40-member Senate.

“The Democratic majorities are larger in both houses of the state Legislature and labor can take some credit for that,” said Republican political consultant Tony Quinn. “As a result, their overall clout with the Legislature should be increased.”

However, political observers note that Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has not given labor everything it has wanted during the first two years of his term and that trend is likely to continue, despite the Democratic gains in the Legislature.

“You still have a governor who is trying to balance the interests of business and labor, and if he vetoes something, the Democrats still don’t have the votes to override him,” said L.A.-based political consultant Allan Hoffenblum.

Labor’s victories were not confined to candidates. Unions targeted four statewide initiatives: They mounted a huge campaign against Proposition 38, the school voucher measure, and smaller campaigns against Proposition 37 (redefining some regulatory fees as taxes) and for Proposition 39 (lowering the voter-approval threshold for school bonds).

And labor scored a huge win in Santa Monica, where a living wage measure was put on the ballot by local businesses and hotel operators to counter a broader living wage measure being considered by the City Council. Proposition KK went down to defeat by a margin of almost 3 to 1.

“That was a big-time victory for us,” said Neal Sacharow, spokesman for the L.A. County Federation of Labor. “The business backers of the measure were forced to withdraw their support weeks ago in the face of the campaign we mounted.”

Those business backers, including beachfront hotel operators, spent almost $900,000 to put Prop. KK on the ballot, but didn’t put any money in during the final weeks. Instead, they focused on city council races and put money into the campaigns of two pro-business candidates. One of those candidates ousted a pro-union council incumbent; the other candidate lost.

The election was not a complete sweep for labor, however. Perhaps the most disappointing loss was that of Democrat Gerrie Schipske, who lost to incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Steve Horn by a mere 1 percentage point.

“The unions came close, and might have won against another Republican incumbent,” said consultant Hoffenblum. “But Steve Horn has been more pro-labor than most Republicans and he just barely managed to hang on.”

The County Federation of Labor also endorsed incumbent Democratic L.A. County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who was trounced by Republican challenger and Deputy D.A. Steve Cooley, 64 percent to 36 percent. But observers note that even though labor unions officially endorsed Garcetti, they did not mount a significant campaign on his behalf. And that, these observers say, was because Garcetti consistently trailed in the polls.

Contreras said that despite the record number of volunteers, labor unions still did not have the resources to campaign actively for all the races with candidates they endorsed.

“We endorsed a lot of people, but didn’t target everyone,” he said. “Garcetti was one of those we endorsed but didn’t target.”

On the statewide level, one initiative opposed by public employee unions, Proposition 35 (contracting out state engineering work) passed by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin. However, most other unions stayed neutral on the issue, while some building trade unions actually supported it.

Locally, public employee unions campaigned hard for Proposition A, which would have expanded the L.A. County Board of Supervisors from five members to nine members. The measure went down to defeat. However, here again, most other unions, including the County Federation of Labor, stayed neutral on the measure.

“Sometimes, individual unions or groups of unions can put tremendous resources into a specific measure, but those unions find it more difficult to succeed without support from the broader spectrum of unions,” Wong said.

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