Union-Member Candidates Pack the Field in New Jersey Elections

by Mike Hall, Oct 18, 2007

Wayne DeAngelo, of IBEW Local 269 and candidate for the New Jersey assembly, talks to union volunteers before a labor walk.

There’s no such thing as an off-year in New Jersey political action. Every year is an election year, says New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech.

Between each congressional and presidential election cycle, New Jersey voters elect their entire state Legislature and most of their municipal office holders. Working family voters are ready again this fall says Wowkanech.

We’ve got the entire state Assembly and Senate—120 members and we are running a very aggressive program. Last weekend alone we had more than 700 people out walking and knocking on doors.

Overall, union volunteers have knocked on some 75,000 doors during labor walks this fall. Union-member volunteers have been talking with their colleagues and distributing worksite information—more than 263,000 fliers—about the working family-friendly candidates on the ballot, including the 51 union members running for various offices around the state. Says Wowkanech:

We are particularly proud of our union members. We’ve got four who are running for mayor, 36 for council seats, three for Freeholder (similar to city councils), seven for state Assembly and one for state Senate.

Now in its 11th year, the New Jersey union candidate program is one of the most active in the nation. More than 440 union members who have attended the Union Candidate School have been elected to public office. That’s about a 76 percent win rate, according to Wowkanech. The two-day course gives union members an opportunity to learn campaign basics, including fundraising, election law, public speaking and media relations.

We give them the basic skills and support, and the goal is to help them win in the lower races and have them move up. Three of our graduates are moving up to state assembly races.

Three of those graduates now hold key legislative chairs: Steve Sweeney of Iron Workers Local 399, the chairmen of the state Senate Labor Committee; Joe Coniglio, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) Local 14, the chairman of the state Senate Government Committee; and Joe Egan, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 456, chairman of the state Assembly Labor Committee.

As a result of labor’s successful program to recruit, train, mentor, and support union members election campaign efforts, labor’s success in the legislative arena has grown substantially and many statewide pro-worker policies and laws have been implemented.

Another union school grad set to move up is Wayne DeAngelo (D), assistant business manager for IBEW Local 269. The Hamilton Council member is also the president of the Mercer County Building and Construction Trades Council. He says that along with tackling energy independence, using his experience in helping create one of the state’s largest solar panel systems and promoting stronger ethics in government rules, fair pay is an issue that must be addressed.

In a day when many families need two incomes to make ends meet, it is important that there is equal pay for an equal days work. Members of workforce should be devalued simply because of their gender. Too many families need every dollar to meet their household budgets. We need to ensure that all employees are earning the wages that they deserve.

(Click here to read more about the wage gap between men and women.)

Wowkanech points out that party membership is not a prerequisite for the candidate school or union endorsement.

We need to work with everybody. In one of the districts, both assembly seats are vacant and we have union members running both. John Amodeo from Operating Engineers Local 825 is Republican and John Wilkins a Plumber and Pipefitter (UA) from Local 322 is running for the other seat.

(Click here, here and here to read about union members in office in other states.)

With the election less than three weeks away, Wowkanech says he expects more union volunteers on the phones, labor walks and worksites. Then maybe they’ll get a little breather before the 2008 presidential election hits full stride.

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Paid for by AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Treasury Fund. 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 2006. This expenditure was not made with the cooperation or prior consent of, or in consultation with, or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate, or person or committee acting on behalf of a candidate.  

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