More Union Members in Public Office: Denver City Council

by Mike Hall, Jun 12, 2007

Paul Lopez
Chris Nevitt

The best allies working families can have on city councils, in state legislatures and in other elected offices are people who understand their important issues, like good jobs, health care and education—somebody like a fellow union member or working family activist. Denver voters agree.

On June 5, two longtime working family advocates—Chris Nevitt and Paul Lopez—won run-off election victories for Denver City Council seats. Says Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation:

This historic election of two organizers, advocates and leaders from our movement marks a moment of opportunity in a city where the poverty-prosperity divide is growing unchecked….I have worked closely with these brothers throughout the past five years and simply cannot overstate their integrity and commitment.

Nevitt is the founder of the Front Range Economic Strategy
Center, described by the Rocky Mountain News as a union-backed

think-tank that successfully pushed Denver to demand guarantees of quality jobs and affordable housing at the huge Gates redevelopment project.

Moody also notes that Nevitt’s other projects in

…innovative organizing and policy campaigns linking good jobs, a clean environment and affordable housing, give Chris the solid footing he will need to take a running start for Denver’s working families.

Nevitt told the paper that Denver shares the same problems as other large cities across the country.

Wages are stagnant, and housing and health care costs are increasing. We have a middle class that’s sliding backwards. City Council should be showing more initiative and more leadership.

Joining Nevitt on the council is Paul Lopez, an AFL-CIO Union Summer veteran who has spent the past several years organizing for workers and immigrants’ rights with SEIU and Justice for Janitors. He comes from a union family. His dad was a union janitor and his mom, a union teacher. Says Lopez:

My priority is working families. We have to start to talk about those issues.

The pair’s union ties were quite a campaign advantage, too. Moody says several area unions pitched in with people and other resources and union members made phone calls, handed out leaflets and knocked on doors even “in our crazy Colorado weather.” The mobilization paid off, with union family voters going to the voting booths at a nearly 20 percent higher rate than the general public. Says Moody:

This extended effort, coupled with the awesome candidates…is the beginning of a new chapter in making Denver a real “union city.”

Click here to read about union members in public office in Texas and West Virginia. If you are a union member who holds public office and would like to share your experiences on the campaign trail and in office, submit a comment or drop us a line at aflcio@blognews.org.

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