This Wednesday, the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council's delegates will again have a fight over whether to endorse CA-53 Representative Susan Davis.
Susan Davis was originally endorsed by the Labor Council back in 2000, when she took on Representative Brian Bilbray in his former district. Bilbray was a bad vote time and time again at both the local and the national level for Labor. So, they organized, as unions know how, and helped then Assemblymember Davis beat Bilbray and sent her to the House of Representatives.
Representative Davis made a controversial vote during her first term by voting for CAFTA. This earned her the wrath of Labor in the following election cycle. Davis made it through the election without issue. However, time and time again she comes before Labor, asks for their support and time and time again Labor never forgets and never forgives her for that vote.
There seems to be no consideration by the local unions of Representative Davis’ overall record. She has voted for minimum wage increases, Head Start funding, the Employee Free Choice Act, environmental and labor rights including in future trade deals, healthcare reform, welfare re-authorization and so forth. Even though, the sentiments among the anti-Davis folks are strong, she still continues to receive the support by some of the labor unions that make up the Labor Council. Take a look at her PAC numbers; she receives money from AFSCME, AFT, Postal Workers, Fire Fighters, Letter Carriers, SEIU, Boilermakers, Transport Workers and so forth.
Labor needs to ask themselves the hard question. Do they oppose Susan Davis yet again this year, or try to reach out to her and figure out how they can work together? Does Labor move forward or continue to look backwards this Wednesday night? I hope they look forward. TQ
3 comments:
Obviously this post was made from someone outside labor, who doesn't understand the dynamics of the Labor Council process. If there was a hope of creating a floor fight on this, the poster just ruined it. This is a LOCAL decision, made by local unions (who had their membership ravished thanks to these trade agreements). It may be easy to say move forward, but it gets harder when you see the faces of the men and women who have lost their jobs, their spirit, and their livlihood as their once middle class job is shipped to Oman, where the work can be done for slave wages. Face those workers everyday, the same workers who took time to help get Susan Davis elected only to get their jobs fast-tracked out of the Country, then say move on. SOLIDARITY!
Seeing as how Susan is practically a resident of Maryland, the Labor Council should look at someone LOCAL to represent them.
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