WSLC
Reports Today
Updated DAILY...
Almost Every Day™ by 9 a.m.
Links are functional at date of posting, but sometimes expire. Some links require free registration. WSLC Reports Today links to stories of interest to organized labor; some positive, some negative. The intention is to inform.
FRIDAY, NOV.
10 ▪
Election
2006 "a resounding success for working families"
Election news: Local
news: That
Didn't Take Long news: Other
national news: Last
Throes update:
▪ In
today's News Tribune -- Unions
must retain right to support selected candidates (Bender
op-ed) -- Unions have a responsibility to their
members, and their founders, to protect labor standards. Many take basic
worker rights for granted, but we remember it was previous generations of
trade unionists who fought for and won these rights – and some paid with
their lives.
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Reichert
hangs on as Burner prepares for recount -- With
the race still too close to call, Burner prepares for a recount if -- and it
is still a big if -- the vote counts warrant it. In a small batch of votes
counted Thursday, Reichert continued to hold a skinny lead.
▪ In
today's News Tribune -- With
chairmanship, Dicks poised to be a force (editorial) --
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, who made his early political reputation “working for
jobs,” is set to become one of the House’s 13 “cardinals.” These are
the chairmen of the appropriations subcommittees, whose names are usually
preceded by the word “powerful.”
▪ In the Columbian -- Baird
says his to-do list is now attainable -- His
priorities include passage of the sales tax deductibility bill, legislation
giving members of Congress and the public 72 hours to read a bill after it
is introduced before a vote can be scheduled, and (gasp) a 5-day work week.
▪ In
today's Oregonian -- Rep.
Jim Dunn draws nearer in bid to keep 17th LD seat -- The Republican
pulls to within 144 votes -- and automatic recount territory -- of Democrat
Pat Campbell.
▪ In
today's King Co. Journal -- Democratic
wave hits Eastside -- (WSLC-endorsed) Rep. Fred Jarrett of Mercer Island
is set to become the only Republican on the shores of Lake Washington.
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Bittersweet
victory in high-court battle (editorial) --
Justice Susan Owens' easy re-election to a second term leaves the state's
high court unchanged, if battered.
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Memo
to Dino Rossi (editorial) -- Take
note of the trouncing your party took in this state on Election Day. Not
only did voters shift dramatically the balance of power in both houses of
the Legislature, but the ballot initiative you came out to promote -- I-933
-- was roundly defeated. Perhaps your leadership reputation would have been
better burnished had you spoken out last year in opposition to Initiative
912, the failed attempt to cut transportation funding. But you were busy
trying to sell a book about leadership rather than exercising it. (Burn!)
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing
taps new man top head contract talks -- Doug Kight, who's been a member
of departing Jerry Calhoun's negotiating team, will now be the lead guy.
Says IAM 751 President Mark Blondin, who'll meet with Kight next week:
"We are looking for a fresh start."
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Port
of Seattle loses big customer -- It's rumored that a possible work
slowdown by longshore workers could have concerned Mediterranean Shipping.
ILWU Local 19 President Herald Ugles says that there isn't any deliberate
work slowdown happening.
▪ In
today's SF Chronicle -- Gas
prices drifting back up; critics suspicious of pre-election declines
▪ In
today's NY Times -- Bipartisanship
on hold (editorial) -- Bush
has made it clear that, for now, his idea of how to “put the elections
behind us” is to use the Republicans’ last two months in control of
Congress to try to push through one of the worst ideas his administration
and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill have come up with: a bill that
would legalize his illegal wiretapping program and gut the law that limits a
president’s ability to abuse his power in this way.
▪ In
the NY Times -- Dems'
victory raises spirits of those favoring citizenship for illegal immigrants
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- One
place to start: immigration reform (editorial) --
The U.S. Senate took the high ground, passing a reasonable plan the
president should be able to live with.
▪ In
today's Washington Post -- First,
ethics reform (editorial) --
The "culture of corruption" in Washington, D.C. helped the
Democrats win the election. Now they need to fix the mess.
▪ Today from AP -- Boeing
beats Lockheed for $13 billion Air Force helicopter contract -- The
helicopters will be built at Boeing's plant in Ridley Park, Pa., near
Philadelphia.
▪ Today
from AP -- Death
toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq at 23 for November
▪ Today from AP
-- Iraqis
estimate civilian deaths at 150,000 -- A stunning new death count emerges
from Iraq's health minister; it is about three times previously accepted
estimates.
▪ The
WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of
Iraq.
Of the 2,839
U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far, 2,702 have died (see
the list) since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an
end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003, and 2,373 have died
since Saddam's capture. More than five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is
at large.
FRIDAY,
NOVEMBER 10, 2006
Election 2006 "a resounding success
for working families"
WSLC Reports Today posted election results and comment Wednesday. We update it today with fresh numbers, adding some additional races involving WSLC-endorsed Republicans and legislative races that are too close to call.
Working families in Washington state not only elected labor-endorsed candidates to Congress and State Legislature on Tuesday, voters went three-for three on important statewide ballot measures and three-for-three in re-electing nonpartisan labor-endorsed Supreme Court justices facing well-financed conservative challengers.
"These results confirm not just voters' anger and frustration with the Bush administration, the Iraq War and a scandal-plagued Republican Congress, they also show that working families were paying attention to nonpartisan races and issues all the way down the ballot," said Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. "I have no doubt that our aggressive Labor Neighbor activities and our targeted mail program -- combined with an exceptional response Tuesday from union volunteers for get-out-the-vote activities -- were key factors in making Election Day 2006 such a resounding success for working families."
In the final four days leading up to and including Election Day, volunteers for Labor Neighbor, the WSLC-coordinated grassroots political action program, completed well more than 2,000 shifts of neighborhood walks and phone banks, contacting tens of thousands of union voters. In addition, the WSLC sent more than 800,000 pieces of mail to union households explaining which candidates were endorsed and why.
Here's a roundup of what happened in Washington state (links will take you to the Secretary of State's web site for the latest results):
CONGRESS -- Once considered the U.S. Senate's most vulnerable incumbent Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell trounced well-financed challenger Mike McGavick, 57-40. All six of the other labor-endorsed incumbent Democrats in Congress were easily re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives: U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee won 69-31, Rick Larsen 65-35, Brian Baird 64-36, Norm Dicks 71-29, Jim McDermott 79-16, and Adam Smith 67-33.
All eyes will remain on the hotly contested 8th Congressional District race for days, perhaps weeks, as Republican Rep. Dave Reichert holds a very slim 50.9% to 49.1% lead -- about 3,000 votes -- over labor-endorsed Democrat Darcy Burner. That race's outcome will hinge on the remaining mail ballots yet to be counted.
In Eastern Washington, labor-endorsed 5th District challenger Peter Goldmark came up short against Rep. Cathy McMorris, 55-45; and labor-endorsed Democrat Richard Wright lost to soon-to-be former House Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Doc Hastings, 59-41.
STATE SUPREME COURT -- Incumbent State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens became the third Justice to successfully fend off conservative challengers financed by corporate special interests. Owens easily defeated former Republican state legislator Stephen Johnson 60-40. The right-wing Building Industry Association of Washington sank an estimated $1 million into the three Supreme Court challengers' races -- including financing some of the most despicable attack ads of the election season against Chief Justice Gerry Alexander -- and lost all three of those races.
STATEWIDE INITIATIVES -- Labor went three-for-three on ballot measures. Voters rejecting both Initiative 920 to repeal the state estate tax (and cut education funding) and Initiative 933, the "pay or waive" property rights measure forcing local governments to pay developers just to obey the law. I-920 was rejected 61-39, and I-933 failed 58-42.
Meanwhile, Initiative 937, the labor-endorsed Clean Energy Initiative, was approved 52-48. I-937 will create family-wage jobs by guaranteeing that, by 2020, 15% of the electricity from Washington's largest utilities comes from home-grown renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.
STATE LEGISLATURE -- Pro-working family Democrats extended their majorities in both the State Senate and State House of Representatives. This was especially important in the Senate, where progressive legislation was sometimes stymied by the slim 26-23 majority because one or two conservative Democrats sided with the minority. Democrats appear to have picked up six additional seats to gain a strong 32-17 majority. Likewise in the House, Democrats extended their 55-43 majority by several seats, though a couple of close races will decide how many.
Here are the outcomes of races targeted by Labor Neighbor, the WSLC's grassroots political outreach program. (The candidate listed in bold is the labor-endorsed candidate.) Click here for a complete list of state legislative results.
▪ 6th LD Senate -- Chris Marr 56% -- Sen. Brad Benson 44%
▪ 17th LD House -- Rep. Deb Wallace 58% -- Paul Harris 42%
▪ 23rd LD House -- Christine Rolfes 55% -- Rep. Beverly Woods 45%
▪ 24th LD House -- Kevin Van De Wege 54% -- Rep. Jim Buck 46%
▪ 26th LD Senate -- Rep. Derek Kilmer 60% -- Jim Hines 40% (open seat)
▪ 26th LD House 1 -- Rep. Patricia Lantz 57% -- Beckie Krantz 43%
▪ 26th LD House 2 -- Larry Seaquist 56% -- Ron Boehme 44% (open seat)
▪ 28th LD House 1 -- Troy Kelley 52% -- Don Anderson 48% (open seat)
▪ 28th LD House 2 -- Rep. Tami Green 55% -- Bob Lawrence 45%
▪ 31st LD House -- Christopher Hurst 54% -- Rep. Jan Shabro 46%
▪ 42nd LD House -- Rep. Doug Erickson 55% -- Jasper MacSlarrow 45%
▪ 44th LD Senate -- Steve Hobbs 54% -- Sen. Dave Schmidt 46%
▪ 44th LD House 1 -- Rep. Hans Dunshee 57% -- Mike Hope 43%
▪ 44th LD House 2 -- Rep. John Lovick 61% -- Robert Legg 39%
▪ 45th LD Senate -- Eric Oemig 54% -- Rep. Toby Nixon 46% (open seat)
▪ 47th LD Senate -- Claudia Kauffman 53% -- Mike Riley 47% (open seat)
▪ 47th LD House 1 -- Rep. Geoff Simpson 59% -- Donna Watts 41%
▪ 47th LD House 2 -- Rep. Pat Sullivan 59% -- Andrew Franz 41%
▪ 48th LD Senate -- Rep. Rodney Tom 54% -- Sen. Luke Esser 46%
▪ 48th LD House -- Deborah Eddy 58% -- Bret Olson 42% (open seat)
Republican legislative candidates who were endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council also fared well on Tuesday. Here are the results for those Republicans who faced Democratic opposition (the endorsed candidate is in bold):
▪ 2nd LD House -- Rep. Tom Campbell 59% -- Jeff Stephan 41%
▪ 18th LD House -- Rep. Richard Curtis 58% -- Jonathan Fant 42%
▪ 31st LD Senate -- Sen. Pam Roach 52% -- Yvonne Ward 48%
▪ 41st LD House -- Rep. Fred Jarrett 53% -- Dale Murphy 43%
Here are the legislative races that are still too close to call (WSLC-endorsed candidates in bold):
▪ 10th LD House -- Rep. Barbara Bailey 50.3% -- Tim Knue 49.7% (172 votes)
▪ 17th LD House -- Pat Campbell 50.2% -- Rep. Jim Dunn 49.8% (144 votes)
▪ 39th LD House -- Rep. Dan Kristiansen 51.3% -- Scott Olson 48.7% (714 votes)
If you have news items regarding unions or workplace issues in Washington state that you would like to see posted here, please submit them via e-mail to David Groves or via fax to 206-285-5805.
Copyright © 2006 Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO