See the entire 2009
WSLC Legislative Report
A new
long-term political strategy
New evaluations, PAC
to strategically target WSLC political support
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By BENJAMIN LAWVER
WSLC Political Director
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Some good news has arisen from this year’s bad-news legislative session.
The Washington State Labor Council has conducted a review of its political program -- from evaluations of legislators, to political communications and activism, to campaign contributions. Based on that review, the WSLC Executive Board and several of our largest affiliates have decided to make significant changes to our political program to ensure labor’s support is more strategically targeted to lawmakers who support working families’ interests, regardless of their party affiliation.
Rank-and-file members of WSLC-affiliated unions will be hearing much more about this at our 2009 Convention in Wenatchee on Aug. 6-8, and at our 2010 Legislative Conference in Olympia on Feb. 11. The changes will impact how legislative candidates are evaluated by the delegates who vote on election endorsements at the WSLC’s 2010 COPE Convention next May 15 in Seattle.
Here is a quick summary of what will change:
CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS -- WSLC affiliates have expressed concern that our legislative voting record does not always accurately reflect a legislator’s support for working families. It has become common practice for caucus leaders to "protect" their members by either denying votes on important working family legislation or by blocking recorded roll-call votes on the floor.
Affiliates also felt we need to identify legislators who vote the right way on the final passage of the bill, but actively work against the legislation during the committee process or in caucus meetings. An example would be legislators who co-sponsored this year’s Worker Privacy Act and reportedly worked behind closed doors to quash it and avoid a vote, after being pressured by Boeing and other business interests.
For these reasons, we have determined that the voting records cannot be the sole determining factor in deciding which legislators truly support our issues and which legislators oppose them.
In consultation with our affiliated unions, the WSLC is developing a new, more comprehensive system for evaluating legislators. In addition to COPE voting records, this new system will take into account positive and negative bill sponsorships, public communication on working family issues, caucus and floor advocacy (either for or against labor), questionnaires and interviews, and support for labor activities in their communities.
The formula for how much weight each factor will get is still being developed, but we are confident that the end result will provide a more comprehensive picture for union delegates when they decide who has earned the WSLC’s endorsement.
DIME PAC -- During the 2009 session, it became clear that organized labor can no longer rely on party leadership to advance a progressive agenda for working families. That was clear in 2009, but it has happened many times before as well. That’s why it’s so important that unions more strategically target their campaign contributions and their grassroots political education efforts.
In the past, the WSLC and many of our affiliates have made significant contributions to caucus campaign committees and to incumbent legislators who were not facing serious election challenges. Those campaign contributions are eventually used by caucus leadership to fund activities that benefit individual legislators who then turn around and work against the interest of our members in Olympia.
This needs to change. We need to make sure that only those legislators who are willing to stand up for working families receive our financial support.
The WSLC has created the Don’t Invest In More Excuses PAC -- or DIME PAC for short -- as a way for unions to target campaign contributions more strategically.
Although it’s up to the rank-and-file members and elected officers of individual unions to decide how to make their political contributions, the WSLC urges affiliates to consider contributing to DIME PAC rather than to political party funds. All contributing affiliates will decide how best to target DIME PAC contributions and expenditures for the 2010 elections.
GRASSROOTS EFFORTS -- The value of organized labor’s endorsement has never been about money; unions simply cannot compete with the amount of money that corporate interests pump into election campaigns at the state and federal levels. Labor’s strength has always been in its people.
Union members are widely seen as the "foot soldiers" for many political campaigns. That’s because of our long, proud history of effective political volunteerism and activism, not because of our campaign contributions. Like the monetary support from DIME PAC, the grassroots election activities of our successful Labor Neighbor program need to be targeted to elect champions for working families, not just to build political majorities.
Efforts have already begun to identify potential candidates who have a history of standing up for working families. They are being encouraged to run for office at every level of government. (This year’s WSLC Labor Candidate School trained dozens of potential candidates on how to run successful campaigns.) Washington’s "Top-Two" Primary Election also opens the door to possibly recruiting and supporting candidates in districts that are overly partisan and previously weren’t in play.
There is also renewed interest among some affiliated unions to more aggressively pursue ballot initiatives that take workers’ issues directly to voters—as labor did in leading the charge for our historic indexed minimum wage.
All of these changes are part of a long-term strategy to ensure that labor’s political efforts are more effectively targeted to advance a pro-worker agenda in Washington state. The true champions of that agenda are the legislators who deserve our support. That support must not be taken for granted or manipulated by party organizations and their leaders.
All affiliated unions are urged to e-mail me or call me at 206-281-8901 to share your thoughts and ideas on these changes.
Together, we’ll make it happen.
There are many, many more stories included in the print version of the WSLC's 2009 Legislative Report. See the Table of Contents. Also, members of WSLC-affiliated unions can request a free copy of the printed version of the report.
2009 Senate Voting Record -- 2009 House Voting Record
Copyright © 2009 Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO