Labor & Employment Law

Murray Retains Senate Seat, Quinn Keeps Illinois Governorship

By Mike Hall

Two close major races were finally decided last night. In Washington state, Sen. Patty Murray (D) was declared the winner over Wall Street water boy Dino Rossi (R) and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is the winner over anti-union Bill Brady.

In both races, union support was the key factor in providing the margin of victory. Illinois union family voters made up 26 percent of those who cast ballots and 59 percent went for Quinn.

In Chicago alone, 6,000 union volunteers were on the phones and doors on Election day.

The Washington State Labor Council mounted a massive mobilization for Murray. During the weekend before elections, 400 volunteers visited 9,400 union homes and made nearly 14,000 phone calls to union members urging them to get out the vote for Murray.

Murray?s win means the next Senate will be made up of 53 members of the Democratic caucus (including Independents) and 47 Republicans. The Senate race in Alaska has yet to be called but the vote count shows that both write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski (R) and tea-party backed Joe Miller (R) are far ahead of Democratic candidate Scott McAdams.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 05, 2010 (boomark / email).