Pennsylvania’s Curt Weldon ‘Owes Working People an Apology’

Kombiz Lavasany, who works in online communications at the United Federation of Teachers/AFT in New York, is spending the final weeks before the elections at the AFL-CIO, where he is coordinating political campaign outreach among state-level bloggers. Lavasany sends us this report on Pennsylvania Rep. Curt Weldon’s unfounded claim of AFL-CIO support for his re-election campaign.

Oops. We learned this week of another Republican member of Congress under fire, this time, Rep. Curt Weldon (R) from Philadelphia. FBI agents raided six locations, including his daughter’s home, as part of an investigation into how he allegedly used his connections in Washington to further his daughter’s lobbying business.

But working families in Weldon’s Congressional District 7 may be even more disgusted to learn what came next. In an interview Justin Rood at TPMMuckracker describes as a “They’re out to get me,” performance, Weldon claimed he is the victim of a national conspiracy and has been endorsed by every labor union in the district—including the AFL-CIO.

Wrong.

In fact, the AFL-CIO has been mobilizing union members for his opponent Joe Sestak. As Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William George said in a statement he released in response to Weldon’s false claims:

It is a disappointing and a disgraceful act on the part of Curt Weldon to try and mislead voters about his record and performance. Curt Weldon owes the working people and the labor movement an apology and should stop trying to mislead the voters about support that does not in fact exist.

As a Bush rubber stamp, Weldon repeatedly has voted against working families. He voted for the 2003 Medicare prescription drug giveaway to Big Pharma that’s hurt millions of seniors, many of whom find themselves in an insurance-less loophole. He also voted twice against re-importing drugs from Canada and repeatedly for huge cuts to health care for his constituents and against raising the minimum wage.

Weldon’s voting record speaks for itself—his repeated votes against working families have cost him the endorsement of the AFL-CIO and working families in the district and, in the end, could cost him his seat in Congress.

In the midst of a free fall, a candidate who voted against working families and for the corporate elite suddenly imagines labor support.

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