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Working Families Win in U.S. House Elections |
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| Northeast New York Central Labor Council President Betty Lennon, New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and union members get out the vote for Bill Owens. |
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| New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and Rep.-elect Bill Owens |
Last night, on opposite ends of the country, union members helped send two new fighters for working families to Washington. Bill Owens won in a closely contested battle in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, while John Garamendi won a strong victory in California’s 10th District.
Both U.S. House seats were open after ex-Reps. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) and Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) left Congress to take positions in the Obama administration.
The New York State AFL-CIO and affiliated unions united behind Owens’ candidacy as he faced off against Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
Hoffman, heavily funded by corporate-friendly, right-wing groups like the Club for Growth and the anti-health care “astroturf” group FreedomWorks, drove a pro-worker moderate Republican out of the race, using health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act as scare tactics.
Upstate New York voters rejected these attacks and chose a candidate who supports workers and focused his campaign on job creation and the needs of the 23rd District. Owens is the first Democrat elected to represent this northernmost region of New York in more than a century.
Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, says union member-to-member contact helped send Owens to Congress, with thousands of doors knocked and phone calls making the difference in an election decided by 4 percentage points. Says Hughes:
Today, the labor movement in this state has a great deal to be proud of. Presented with extraordinary circumstances this past weekend, organized labor was able to overcome a daunting challenge and implement a coordinated grassroots campaign that helped propel our candidate to victory.
In California, Garamendi, the state’s lieutenant governor, was elected to the U.S. House by a 16-point margin. Garamendi earned the endorsement of the California Labor Federation this summer. Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, said in the endorsement statement that Garamendi was a champion of education, health care and job creation:
John Garamendi is a tireless advocate for working families and will serve California well in the U.S. Congress.
As the House prepares to vote on health care and other top priorities of working families, we’re glad that working families have sent two new members who will vote for the change America needs. The pro-worker majority in Congress has been strengthened with the addition of Owens and Garamendi.
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