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political education

Every election year, the affiliated union organizations that comprise the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, 
vote on which candidates and initiatives to endorse. 
The WSLC then makes every effort to inform union members about these endorsements and why they were made.

 
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Internal Communication Works

Internal communication is the best way to inform and educate our members. When they see a flier with endorsements from their union they understand that the homework has been done and the issues have been evaluated all in the interest of working families. 

Remember the majority of voters in our state vote by mail -- be sure to get your communication out early. Stay tuned for the 2008 General Election Initiative Fliers which will be available for  distribution to your union members.


2008 election endorsements
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO only makes election endorsements for statewide ballot measures and in races for statewide office, state legislative and certain judicial races. (For recommendations for city, county and other local races, contact your area Central Labor Council.) Here are the WSLC's 2008 election endorsements:

      Statewide Candidates:                                   Click here for a printable copy

  • Governor -- Chris Gregoire
  • Attorney General -- John Ladenburg
  • Auditor -- Brian Sontag
  • Insurance Commissioner -- Mike  Kreidler
  • Lt. Governor -- Brad Owen
  • Public Lands Commissioner -- Peter Goldmark
  • Secretary of State -- Sam Reed
  • Supreme Court Position 3 -- Mary Fairhurst
  • Supreme Court Position 4 -- Charles Johnson
  • Supreme Court Position 7 -- Debra Stephans
  • State Treasurer -- Jim McIntire
  • State Court of Appeals 3 -- Kevin M. Korsmo

       Congressional Candidates:

  • CD-01 -- Jay Inslee
  • CD-02 -- Rick Larsen
  • CD-03 -- Brian Baird
  • CD-04 -- George Fearing
  • CD-05 -- Mark Mays
  • CD-06 -- Norm Dicks
  • CD-07 -- Jim McDermott
  • CD-08 -- Darcy Burner
  • CD-09 -- Adam Smith

       Legislative Candidates:

  • LD-01- House 1 -- Al O'Brien
  • LD-01- House 2 -- Mark Ericks
  • LD-01- Senate   -- Rosemary McAuliffe
  • LD-02- House 1 -- Raymond N. Harper
  • LD-02- House 2 -- Tom Campbell
  • LD-02- Senate   -- Marilyn Rasmussen
  • LD-03- House 1 -- Alex Wood
  • LD-03- House 2 -- Timm Ormsby
  • LD-03- Senate   -- Lisa Brown
  • LD-04- House 1 -- Linda Thompson
  • LD-04- House 2 -- Timothy Ray Hattenburg
  • LD-04- Senate  --  Judith Marlene Owens
  • LD-06- House 1 -- Don Barlow
  • LD-06- House 2 -- John Driscoll
  • LD-08- House 1 -- Carol Louise Moser   
  • LD-08- House 2 -- Lawrence Haler
  • LD-10- House 1 -- Timothy Knue
  • LD-10- Senate   -- Mary Margaret Haugen
  • LD-11- House 1 -- Zack Hudgins
  • LD-11- House 2 -- Bob Hasegawa
  • LD-11- Senate   -- Margarita Prentice
  • LD-16- House 2 -- William Grant
  • LD-17- House 1 -- Timothy Probst
  • LD-17- House 2 -- Deb Wallace
  • LD-17- Senate   -- Don Benton
  • LD-18- House 1 -- VaNessa Duplessie
  • LD-18- House 2 -- Jonathan Fant
  • LD-18- Senate   -- Jon Haugen
  • LD-19- House 1 -- Dean Takko
  • LD-19- House 2 -- Brian Blake
  • LD-19- Senate   -- Brian Hatfield
  • LD-20- House 1 -- Michael Rechner
  • LD-20- House 2 -- Jim M. Cutler
  • LD-20- Senate   -- Charles Bojarski
  • LD-21- House 1 -- Mary Helen Roberts
  • LD-21- House 2 -- Marko Liias
  • LD-22- House 2 -- Brendan Williams
  • LD-22- House 2 -- Sam Hunt
  • LD-22- Senate   -- Karen Fraser
  • LD-23- House 1 -- Sherry Appleton
  • LD-23- House 2 -- Christine Rolfes
  • LD-23- Senate   -- Phil Rockefeller
  • LD-24- House 1 -- Kevin VanDeWege
  • LD-24- House 2 -- Lynn Kessler
  • LD-24- Senate   -- Jim Hargrove
  • LD-25- House 1 -- Rob Cerqui
  • LD-25- House 2 -- Lavona "Dawn" Morrell
  • LD-26- House 1 -- Kim Elizabeth Able
  • LD-26- House 2 -- Larry Seaquist
  • LD-27- House 2 -- Dennis Flannagan
  • LD-27- House 2 -- Jeannie Darneille
  • LD-27- Senate   -- Debbie Regala
  • LD-28- House 1 -- Troy Kelly
  • LD-28- House 2 -- Tami Green
  • LD-28- Senate   -- Deborah Jane Srail
  • LD-29- House 1 -- Steve Conway
  • LD-29- House 2 -- Steve Kirby
  • LD-30- House 1 -- Mark Miloscia
  • LD-30- House 2 -- Carol Jean Gregory
  • LD-31- House 1 -- Ron Weigelt
  • LD-31- House 2 -- Christopher Hurst
  • LD-32- House 1 -- Maralyn Chase
  • LD-32- House 2 -- Ruth Kagi
  • LD-33- House 1 -- Tina Louise Orwall       (Dual Endorsement)
  • LD-33- House 1 -- Elizabeth A. Albertson (Dual Endorsement)
  • LD-33- House 2 -- Dave Upthegrove
  • LD-34- House 1 -- Sharon Nelson
  • LD-34- House 2 -- Eileen Cody
  • LD-34- Senate   -- Joe McDermott
  • LD-35- House 1 -- Kathy Haigh
  • LD-35- House 2 -- Daryl Daugs
  • LD-36- House 2 -- Mary Lou Dickerson
  • LD-37- House 2 -- Eric Pettigrew
  • LD-38- House 1 -- John McCoy
  • LD-38- House 2 -- Mike Sells
  • LD-39- House 1 -- Scott Olson
  • LD-39- Senate   -- Frederick Walser
  • LD-40- House 1 -- Dave Quall
  • LD-41- House 1 -- Marcie Maxwell
  • LD-41- House 2 -- Judy Clibborn
  • LD-41- Senate   -- Fred Jarrett
  • LD-42- House 2 -- Kelli Linville
  • LD-43- House 2 -- Frank Chopp
  • LD-44- House 1 -- Hans Dunshee
  • LD-44- House 2 -- Liz Loomis
  • LD-45- House 1 -- Roger Goodman
  • LD-45- House 2 -- Larry Springer
  • LD-46- House 1 -- Scott White
  • LD-46- House 2 -- Phyllis Kenney
  • LD-47- House 1 -- Geoff Simpson
  • LD-47- House 2 -- Pat Sullivan
  • LD-48- House 1 -- Ross Hunter
  • LD-48- House 2 -- Deb Eddy
  • LD-49- House 1 -- James F. "Jim" Jacks II
  • LD-49- House 2 -- James C. Moeller
  • LD-49- Senate   -- Craig Pridemore

 

2008 Legislative Voting Records
The Washington State Labor Council's 2008 Legislative Voting Records are available in a 3-page printable (PDF) format. More details on the bills included and overall coverage of the session are included in the 2008 WSLC Legislative Report & Voting Record.

Check out this website
Visit the AFL-CIO's Working Families Vote 2008 website at workingfamiliesvote2008.org. The site is a hub for the extensive activity by AFL-CIO unions to push the concerns of working families front and center in the national political debate and to provide information to rank-and-file  members about where the candidates stand on the issues that are central to working families' lives. It serves as an online voter guide and gives our members a way to make their voices heard, feeding into the AFL-CIO endorsement process.


2006 election news
from the pages of WSLC Reports Today

November 10, 2006 -- "A resounding success for working families"

November 9 -- Union member vote drove shift in nation's balance of power

November 3 -- Justice Owens' integrity, experience won labor's endorsement

October 30 -- Initiative 933: A Disaster in the Making

October 20 -- Know your rights! Don't let anybody stop you from voting

October 19 -- Rubberstamp Reichert supports Bush agenda 94% of the time

October 18 -- With ballots in mail, check out your union's endorsements

September 26 -- McGavick's Social Security privatization = Benefit cuts

August 4 -- Cantwell, Murray vote to block tip penalty, estate tax cut

July 31 -- Reichert & Co. once again vote against minimum wage increase

July 13 -- Reichert's minimum wage opposition out of step with voters

July 7 -- Rep. Jay Inslee, Darcy Burner pledge to reform U.S. labor laws

May 11 -- Reichert & Co. borrow $69B for wartime upper-class tax cut

December 5, 2005 -- Do-nothing Doc: Hastings NOT doing heckuva job

June 10, 2005 -- Safeco's McGavick: Rock star or greedy hypocrite?

September 7, 2004 -- Big Business funds anonymous political attacks


Thank you for 2006!
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO wants to thank the many rank-and-file volunteers who performed several thousand shifts of neighborhood walks and phone banking as part of the WSLC's Labor Neighbor program. Your efforts made a tremendous difference and helped make the 2006 election a tremendous success for Washington's working families. The labor-endorsed candidates won 19 of the 20 races targeted this year by Labor Neighbor!  

2006 election endorsements
Hundreds of delegates from across the state -- representing unions affiliated with the Washington State Labor Council unions -- debated and voted in May and August upon 2006 election endorsements for Congress, State Legislature, State Supreme Court and ballot measures.  A two-thirds majority was necessary for endorsement. Download the 2006 WSLC Endorsements.

 


 

Key 2006 election results
Working families in Washington state not only elected labor-endorsed candidates to Congress and State Legislature (see our detailed roundup of election results), voters went three-for three on the following important statewide ballot measures:
■  Initiative 920 (estate tax repeal) -- Yes 38.6%, No 61.4% --
Voters retained the state estate tax. Bankrolled by a few of the state's richest families, I-920 would have repealed their estate taxes by cutting $100 million a year from the Education Legacy Trust, which pays for K-12 school improvements, smaller class sizes and college enrollment slots. The WSLC opposed I-920. 
■  Initiative 933 (re: land-use regulations) -- Yes 41.6%, No 58.4% -- Voters rejected this "faux populist" measure which would have forced taxpayers to pay $7-9 billion to some landowners just to follow laws that are already on the books, or waive community protections. This "pay or waive" system would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars just to administer. The WSLC opposed I-933.
■  Initiative 937 (Clean Energy Initiative) -- Yes 51.8%, No 48.2% -- Voters approved this measure, which guarantees that 15% of the electricity from our largest utilities comes from home-grown renewable energy sources like wind and solar. I-937 will create new jobs, and save consumers money through energy conservation. The WSLC supported I-933.

 

Key 2005 election results
■  Initiative 912 (Gas Tax Repeal) -- Yes 45.4%, No 54.6% -- Voters have chosen to retain the gas tax (even as oil companies gouge them with high prices) and support an $8.5 billion investment in our transportation infrastructure. This is a watershed vote for good jobs and our state's economy, an outcome that political pundits didn't think was possible just weeks ago. 
■  Initiative 330 (Medical Malpractice Caps) -- Yes 43.3%, No 56.7% -- This is another major victory. Voters saw through a deceptive, negative campaign waged by the insurance industry and the Washington State Medical Ass'n, which demonized nurses' unions for daring to oppose I-330.
■  Initiative 901 (Clean Indoor Air Act) -- Yes 63.2%, No 36.8% -- This outcome is less of a surprise, but is another significant victory for Washington workers. I-901 bans indoor smoking in public places and the workplace, finally protecting ALL workers from toxic secondhand smoke.

 

 

A portion of this website is paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education - Political Contributions Committee, with voluntary contributions from union members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Copyright © 2007  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO