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Working Families Vote: Election 2010 Thread

By Mike Hall

Pennsylvania union members getting out the vote.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Mark Brault of USW Local 2-213 leaflet a plant in Madison, Wis.

11: 38: Results for the Nevada U.S. Senate race between Sen. Harry Reid (D) and one of the most extreme of a bevy of extreme Republican candidates, Sharron ?jobs aren?t part of my job description? Angle have been delayed by long lines at polling places and a power outage.

11:09: Even with a large percentage of votes counted. Three key U.S. Senate races that pit worker friendly candidates against corporate and tea party backed opponents are too close to call.

In Pennsylvania with 93 percent of the vote in, Rep. Joe Sestak (D) and Rep Pat Toomey (R) neck in neck with 50 percent of the vote each.  Click here to find out more about Toomey?s call to privatize Social Security. In Illinois, Alexi Giannoulias (D) and Republican Mark Kirk (R) are separated by just a few thousand votes with 80 percent of the ballots counted.

Union backed Sen. Sen. Michael Bennet (D) holds a 5 percentage point lead over tea party-backed Ken Buck in Colorado. But that race is still considered to close to call with just 22 percent of the vote counted.           

9:49: In West Virginia, Rep. Nick Joe Rahall (D), a strong mine safety advocate who the coal industry?including Massey Energy, owner of the Upper Big Branch cola mine where 29 miners were killed?lined up against with big money for his opponent, won re-election. Rahall won 59 percent of the union vote.

9:40: In Maryland, CNN projects Gov. Martin O’Malley has won re-election in Maryland’s gubernatorial race, beating Republican former Gov. Bob Ehrlich. Maryland union members turned out strong for O?Malley.

In 2007 Some 10,000 Maryland home child care providers and home health care workers won bargaining rights earlier this month when Gov. Martin O?Malley (D) signed executive orders granting the workers the right to join unions. Said  O?Malley, “If workers want to elect a union so their voices can be heard we should not stand in the way of that.”

 9:34: Kentucky Republican and Sen.-elect Rand Paul just said in his acceptance speech that private business creates jobs not government–Guess that’s why 26 million of America’s workers have no jobs. 

9:23: In Ohio, Republican nominee Rob Portman defeated Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in Ohio’s Senate race. The battle between Gov Ted Strickland and Republican challenger John Kasich has not been called.

9:07: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wins Senate race, defeating multimillionaire former wrestling executive Linda McMahon 51-46 percent. She said Congress should consider lowering the minimum wage. Union members went for Blumenthal by 60 percent and the union?s mobilization included 491,209 total voter contacts before final GOTV push.

8:41: Union members made the difference in the West Virginia Senate vote:

• Among non-union households, Democrat Joe Manchin lost 47-50; among union households Manchin won 65-31.
• There are 189,492 members in West Virginia, approximately 28 percent of the vote.

8:25: We also want to congratulate Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy in Vermont for winning his seventh term!

8:15: Republican Christine O’Donnell loses to Christopher Coons in Delaware. Victory for sanity over fear.

8:05: Polls to stay open until 10 pm in Bridgeport, Conn., because of ballot problems.

7:59: On ABC News Now, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the early returns contained no major surprises and ?It?s too early to tell everywhere.?  He also noted the AFL-CIO?s Labor 2010 member-to-member mobilization included 30 million phone calls, 20 million pieces of mail and 5.1 million knocks on union family doors. When the dust settles, he said union family voters are likely to have backed worker friendly candidates by 35 percent or more.   

7:24: Not good news from Kentucky. Rand Paul, the tea party backed and extreme right wing candidate for U.S. Senate has been projected as the winner in his race against Jack Conway. Paul, you?ll remember wants to privatize Social Security and rollback federal mine safety laws. Needless to say, he had the big money backing of the coal industry.

Also Republican Dan Coats picked up Indiana?s U.S. Senate seat and in South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R), the tea party?s favorite sitting U.S. senator, won reelection.       

6:42: If you get a chance, tune into (or DVR) ABC News Now and MSNBC?s election coverage tonight. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is scheduled to appear on ABC News Now between 7:30 and 8 P.m. EDT and on MSNBC at 8:30 p.m. That will be after many polls have closed and we may have a better idea of how the races are falling.   

6:23: On Fox News earlier today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in Philadelphia, said Pennsylvania voters and voters around the country ?don?t want to go back to the time when Wall Street controlled everything, including the federal government…no matter who gets elected, it?s about jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs, It?s about protecting pensions, it?s about rebuilding the economy.?

As we note below, exit polls bear him out.  

5:43: Looks like voters know who’s to blame for the economy: Wall Street and G.W. Bush. CNN has the stats:

“Thirty-five percent of voters in early exit polls pin the blame on Wall Street. The next name on the list: former President Bush ? 29 percent point their fingers in his direction. President Obama follows, at 24 percent.”

5:30: First exit polls show–Surprise! The economy is important. From CNN:

 …with unemployment hovering around 9.6 percent, [the economy is] roughly twice as important to [voters] as the other top issues of concern combined, according to early exit polls.

Sixty-two percent of voters name the economy as their most important issue this year. Health care ranks a distant second, at 19 percent. Illegal immigration and Afghanistan follow at 8 and 7 percent.

1:30: The polls are moving toward closing time?the first batch closes at 7 p.m. EDT and we will bring you regular updates of key races here. But until they close, here?s a look at union volunteer actions.

The Madison (Ky.) Courier reports that union activists backing Jack Conway over extreme right-wing Rand Paul for the U.S. Senate are keeping up:

leafleting at worksites, sometimes in the middle of the night to catch shift changes, manned phone banks and walked neighborhoods.

?We are…continuing the effort right up until the end,? said Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan. ?The intensity of it has been ratcheted up, and the amount of materials that are being distributed and the amount of phone calls are reaching a peak.?

In Ohio, where union activists have mobilized for gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, Senate candidate Lee Fisher and several U.S. House candidates, the Toledo Blade reports:

The Ohio AFL-CIO…has staffed 4,500 three-hour volunteer shifts and logged 500,000 phone calls and about 75,000 door knocks in support of Democratic candidates for state and national office in Ohio, according to spokesman Andy Richards.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker spent time in recent days with members of the Teamsters at a GOTV phone bank in Florida.

?We want to make sure that we have candidates in the state and in Washington that are going to support working families, that are going to be fighting for fair trade, that aren’t going to support trade deals that outsource jobs,? Mr. Richards said.

The Christian Science Monitor writes that in Colorado where union-backed Michael Bennet is battling a tea party-backed opponent, ?AFL-CIO volunteers say they will have contacted 189,000 targeted union members and their families by Nov. 2.?

The tea party wave and the millions of dollars that outside conservative groups are pouring into Colorado races are a special challenge this cycle, union organizers say. ?Members at worksites can provide a counterweight to the message bombs that outside, far-right groups are putting out there,? says Phil Hayes, political and legislative director for Colorado AFL-CIO. ?But we don?t have enough people in media presenting the facts.?

The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer tells WUWM radio that union member to union member contact has been at the heart of their election efforts.

Personal contact is proven to be a very good source of information. And when a union member talks to another union member, especially face-to-face, our message cuts through all the other ads and media overload that people are experiencing.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 02, 2010 (boomark / email).