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AFL-CIO Federations in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Idaho Roll Out Endorsements for Congress |
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The fight for a pro-working family government doesn’t end with the race for the White House. Around the country, union members in key states, including Kentucky, Oklahoma and Idaho, are looking to elect new members of Congress who will help turn around America.
The Kentucky State AFL-CIO has announced endorsements in key races for U.S. Congress.
Bill Londrigan, president of the state federation, says these candidates, and the issues they’ll fight for, will help mobilize union members to win this fall.
[We] endorsed on the basis of their of support for the issues of critical importance to Kentucky’s hardworking men and women: good jobs, the right to organize, health care for all, retirement security and education and training opportunities.
Topping the list of Kentucky endorsees is Bruce Lunsford, who is running for U.S. Senate against Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader who’s led the fight against working family-friendly policies like a real economic stimulus bill and children’s health insurance.
McConnell is behind the strategy of obstruction that has allowed a minority of senators to block important legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act. He consistently has voted for Bush nominees for key federal agencies, including the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MHSA) and the Department of Labor (headed by his wife, Elaine Chao). In short, McConnell is the Senate’s key enabler of the anti-worker agenda. Lunsford has pledged to support the Employee Free Choice Act and to work with union members as they fight to “Ditch Mitch.”
In addition to supporting Lunsford, Kentucky unions gave their strong endorsement to two incumbent House members and a challenger. Endorsements went to Democratic Reps. John Yarmuth of the 3rd District and Ben Chandler of the 6th District, as well as to Democratic State Sen. David Boswell, who’s running for the 2nd District seat left open by retiring Republican Ron Lewis.
Union members in Kentucky were crucial in the stunning 18-point victory for Gov. Steve Beshear last November, and the Kentucky AFL-CIO is looking to build on its success with these endorsements for the U.S. House and Senate. In addition to working to elect Lunsford and Boswell and re-elect Chandler and Yarmuth, Londrigan says the state AFL-CIO will focus on exposing the record of Sen. John McCain.
In Oklahoma, State Sen. Andrew Rice is running against Sen. Jim Inhofe, another Republican who regularly votes against working family-friendly policies on health care, wages and the freedom to form unions. Rice won the endorsement of the Oklahoma AFL-CIO on Tuesday.
Oklahoma AFL-CIO President Jimmy Curry calls Rice “a good friend of working men and women.”
In Idaho, where Republican Sen. Larry Craig won’t be returning to the Senate, former Democratic Rep. Larry LaRocco has won the endorsement of the Idaho AFL-CIO.
David Whaley, president of the state federation, says members of the Idaho AFL-CIO’s Executive Board were impressed by LaRocco’s commitment to working family issues and his visits to worksites around the state. Says Whaley:
The working families of Idaho are struggling to raise families, pay their taxes, support education, care for their aging parents and cope with the continued increase in health care costs. Larry LaRocco has been working in jobs all across Idaho and has heard firsthand about the challenges they face in their lives. When he is elected, he will continue to work alongside these same families and make sure their voices are heard through his expressed support of the Employee Free Choice Act. We are proud to endorse him for the U.S. Senate.
The effort to elect more working family-friendly members of the House and Senate is an essential part of this year’s unprecedented mobilization of millions of union members.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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Bruce Lunsford supported Republican Governor Fletcher in the last election. I urge the AFL-CIO to withdraw it’s endorsement of this man. If he is nominated, I will not vote for Senator.
“Union members in Kentucky were crucial in the stunning 18-point victory for Gov. Steve Beshear last November, and the Kentucky AFL-CIO is looking to build on its success with these endorsements for the U.S. House and Senate. In addition to working to elect Lunsford and Boswell and re-elect Chandler and Yarmuth, Londrigan says the state AFL-CIO will focus on exposing the record of Sen. John McCain. ”
The KY AFL-CIO is not as interested in exposing the record of Bruce Lunsford this year, however, since Lunsford’s track record is decidedly anti-union. In fact, last year KY’s labor unions formally DISendorsed Lunsford in his run for governor, and even created a 527 to fight against his campaign. Lunsford supported and donated to Mitch McConnell before this year, and he also endorsed and was part of the transition team of Ernie Fletcher, KY’s previous governor, who dissolved the Labor Cabinet and tried to get a “Right-To-Work” bill passed.
Lunsford is no friend to labor. It’s his money that makes him an attractive candidate. Bill Londrigan told the Lexington Herald-Leader:
“On balance, we measured Bruce to be a candidate that had more capability to challenge Mitch — money, name recognition, the support he’s going to receive from the … big players in D.C., the DSCC.”
In other words, he’s being supported because he IS in big business, regardless of what he’s done to KY labor. The AFL-CIO should have endorsed one of the other candidates running, which would, at least, leave its principles intact.
In 2007 (so long ago), when he was running in the Democratic primary for Governor of Kentucky, Bruce Lunsford printed a union bug on his campaign literature.
Unfortunately for Lunsford, he chose to copy and paste the bug of a labor organization that no longer existed in 2007. The bug itself had expired in 1999; I am not sure what year the actual union local — in Missouri — dissolved.
A former Lunsford staff member informed me that the union bug error was a mistake made by the unionized print shop in Missouri that the campaign used.
I cannot verify which set of facts is true. If I was wrong about Lunsford’s complicity in using an invalid bug — which is very likely — I do not want that to detract from the well-documented facts that I wrote elsewhere on this thread.
Lunsford has committed to co-sponsoring EFCA and supports issues important to working families.
His dad was a union man and he will be on the side of Labor in the U.S. Senate.
Sure he has said that. Except Lunsford’s commitments can’t be taken at face value.
In 2003, Lunsford promised in a televised primary debate that he would support whoever became the Democratic nominee, then he endorsed the Republican nominee.
In the same debate he said that Ben Chandler was lying when Chandler said Lunsford’s Vencor went bankrupt (which it did) or was fined for fraud. The original federal healthcare fraud prosecution against Lunsford’s company was for more than $1 BILLION. Vencor settled the government claims in 2001 by paying more than $200 million (about half of that specifically for fraud allegations).
In 2007, Lunsford told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he would spend only $2 million of his own money on his campaign (as opposed to $8 million in 2003). At the time he made that statement, he had already given $3.5 million in cash to his campaign. By the date of the primary (only 3 weeks after the article ran), the personal funding totaled $5.7 million.
For more background on how Kentucky labor organizations are being pressured to go against their own beliefs and interests, please read this post which ran on a national Democratic blog this week:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-not-just-trust-democracy-in.html
I am outraged at AFL-CIO’s endorsement of Bruce Lunsford. I think it is time for labor to chuck pragmatism and seek out real labor friendly candidates. If the Democratic Party can’t deliver, we need to show some leadership and find alternatives. Working families are being sacrificed and our elected union reps are seen with the perpetrators, smiling and patting them on the back. I could care less if Lunsford’s dad was a union man. This has nothing to do with what he does. I am deeply, deeply, disappointed. I would rather vote for the devil than Lunsford, and brothers and sisters, that may be our choices in November.
A friend of mine — who had a vote at the state AFL-CIO endorsement meeting — gave me permission to share the full text of a letter s/he sent earlier this month to the international union. Excerpts:
“I did not elaborate on Bruce’s shortcomings because Labor is fully aware (at least at our local level but obviously not at the top) so I will make this brief. I am ashamed of my brothers and sisters who bent their convictions in name of big money. Labor does not have money to throw to millionaires, however, I forgive those members who are paid by the international unions and the AFL-CIO because I know they have families to provide for.”
***
“I will not sacrifice my integrity, honor or name by going along with the status quo. You either stand for something or you will fall for anything and I refuse to fall for the big money & heavy handed tactics put upon me these past few days.”
The same person also sent me a relatively short list of reasons for union members to oppose Lunsford’s candidacy, no matter the office or the opponent:
“1. The department of Justice forced Lunsford’s company to pay $104 million settlement because of fraudulent Medicare billing practices.
“2. His company evicted poor patients covered by Medicaid from nursing homes in favor of wealthier patients As a result of this appalling behavior Congress passed a law banning this practice.
“3. His company had a history of substandard care. In 1998 Vencor was forced to turn over its largest nursing home to a non-profit organization due to quote, “pervasive neglect.”
“4. In 1994 he paid over $84 million in penalties because the company enriched itself through the abuse of terminally ill patients.
“5. His company was sued eight times in KY alone for negligent care or wrongful death.
“6. Sued because of insider trading and making misleading statements causing thousands of investors to lose millions in life savings.
“7. In 2003 Lunsford spent $8 million running a false, negative and vicious campaign against Democrat Ben Chandler costing him the Governors race. Then Lunsford dropped out and stood with Mitch McConnell and publicly endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher.
“8. He chaired Fletcher’s Transition Team that abolished the Environmental Protection Cabinet and KY Labor Cabinet, downgrading to department level status.
“9. He gave over $37,000 to Republicans including Ernie Fletcher, Mitch McConnell and George W.
“10. In his campaign against Ben Chandler he ran ads which infringed on protected copyrights. Last year he was accused of plagiarism for copying language for his campaign platform from another candidate in Florida.
“11. Lunsford recently declared Illinois as his state of residence when he bought a $1.8 million golf villa in Arizona.
“12. Bruce Lunsford has run twice as a “Democrat” for Governor of KY in 2003 and 2007. Even though he spent nearly $15 million he failed miserably both times and has never received more than 22% of the vote in either election.”
Brief notes on 9 & 10: the GOP contribution figure is actually much higher than $37,000; and Lunsford actually copied and pasted material from more than half a dozen sources (the “borrowing” from the Florida candidate pales in comparison).