- Is the number of branch libraries in Philly significantly out of line with cities of comparable size?
- Nutter Doesn't Have to Follow the Law says Seventy
- National Media Ridicule Nutter's $100 Million Casino Request as Pork
- What we Need from Harrisburg to Protect Low-Income Property Owners
- Local resistance to Israeli crimes
- Bulletin to Harrisburg: Philadelphia is Part of Pennsylvania
- Today's Email from Siobhan Reardon
- Seth Williams Office Opening Party: TODAY
- Hear, hear: Judge Fox's Order
- Bob Brady saves New Year's and the Mummers!
Can You Feel It?
Submitted by Dan U-A on Sun, 04/29/2007 - 9:34pm.
As I come up to breathe from trying to figure out what constitutes "renumeration" under the anti-kickback medicare statute (it is thrilling, really), I thought we should do a real quick update on our two endorsed candidates- Irv "Big Poppa" Ackelsberg, and Maria Quiñones Sanchez.
Maria is, as far as I can tell, flying. This cycle, SEIU endorsed one politicial challenger in a district council race. Want to guess who that was? For Maria, her endorsements now include:
# Americans for Democratic Action, Philadelphia Chapter
# AFSCME, District Council 47
# AFSCME Local 1723
# Liberty City Democratic Club
# Local 14 M of the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
# Neighborhood Networks
# Pennsylvania NOW
# Philadelphia NOW
# Philly for Change
# SEIU Local 32BJ
# Young Philly Politics
That is quite a list...
As far as the Irv 07 campaign, things are really picking up steam as well. This weekend, the campaign had over 150! volunteers hand delivering a DVD that talks to them about the candidate, and their choice on May 15th. I am young and all, but the idea that a district council candidate could get that many people out walking the streets is a damn good sign. And, the DVD is sort of goofy, but a pretty innovative way to tell people about yourself.
People are tuning in and getting energized.
Two weeks and one day until election time. Get involved. Leave a comment or send me an email- DanielUA at gmail, and I can hook you up with details. These are winnable races.
And, if you are instead passionate about say... Damon Roberts, Haile Johnston, Vern Anastasio, Marc Stier, Derek Green, Matt Ruben or any of the other progressive guys making a run... they could use you these next two weekends. The time is now.
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If I had to offer a
If I had to offer a completely unsolicited advice, I would strongly recommend anyone running for a district office, to have two volunteers at every polling place, who live in the division. Make sure that their family votes. Send them out with street lists and have them, or the campaign, identify voters they know. The day before the election, have the volunteer send around personal information to people they know telling them to vote. On election day, make sure that they check off who they spoke with.
Have a coordinator for each ward check every two hours how things are going. (MAKE SURE YOU GET POLL WATCHERS CERTIFICATES. You want to avoid the practice that happens in some polling places of committeeperson "suggestions" at the ballot box. ) Make sure everyone respects law about distance from polling places and allowing people to fairly pass out literature.
Get some volunteer lawyers for folks who cannot vote b/c of voter registration issues. Remember to coordinate feeding workers.
Most campaigns are all over that, but the biggest issue in getting out your vote is what you do with volunteers on election day. The better campaigns, which does mean those with money, party or union support, will have lots of folks and no idea as to what to do with them. So, if you are active in a campaign, just give some thoughts to the list above and make sure that it's all buttoned up.
For people wishing to volunteer, if I had a recommendation, volunteer in your home precinct and call people you know to make sure that they vote. Call your friends, family members, etc. Ask other people to volunteer in your community. Tell people about why they need to vote. Go to senior centers and organize times for doing absentee ballots. Organize rides to the polls. Volunteer to drive around and feed people. And remember, most campaigns desperately need people on two times during election day, in the morning and in the evening, it is when times are heaviest to vote.
Last piece of advice for district campaigns, make sure that you have worked out in advance what to say if your candidate wins and what to say if it loses. There is a natural inclination to go on to thank everyone that helped. (Which is a good idea.) But I think it is also a good idea to describe your message as well.
Most importantly, make sure that you have someone other than the candidate think about how to congratulate the winning campaign if it doesn't work out. That night can be a way of transitioning folks from campaign to advocacy.
For the candidates, I would recommend that you vote whenever you can get the media to cover it, vote with your significant other, visit some polling places in your area, stop by campaign headquarters to rally the troops -- and I mean this last part seriously -- take it easy. It is an extremely stressful time watching the results come back -- better now with better technology. But chances are you will have your family around, maybe kids, close friends, and the pressure can have the effect of making you snap at loved ones and hard working people who have sacrificed a lot. Take it easy so that you can better handle the pressure of the night.
Good luck to all.
__________________________________________________________________________
I do not work for/support any candidate for any office in Philadelphia.
You are the bomb!!!!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
That was so cool!!!!!!!!!!
People who give advice are electoral angels. Reading the Insider this year was so fun. When you're young and poor, you need help.
Last year a week before the primary the Daily News straight up published an article on what the party structure does on election day, which was certainly a happy accident for Dicker 06 (at least those on that campaign that were newbies) and probably Payton 06 too, although those guys had their stuff a little more together. I remember I opened the paper, started reading, dumped an entire cup of coffee all over myself in shock, and laughed for 15 minutes.
Best point here: truthtold is totally right about message on Eday.
As Blondell will attest, even if you don't win the first time...
or the seond time...
you always have a larger career to think about.
Honest question: as a
Honest question: as a reform-minded voter, why shouldn't it concern me that Maria has such widespread union support? Aren't these are the same unions supporting Brady and Fattah?
SEIU & AFSCME DC47 are progressive unions
While I think that most of us here are pro-union in a broad sense, there is certainly dissent over how some unions, especially some of the building trades unions, conduct themselves in electoral politics. However, the union endorsements that Maria has received are all from unions that are widely perceived as progressive and not involved in negative politicking. ASFSCME DC 47 is the City white-collar workers, and Local 1723 is an affiliate at Temple. SEIU 32BJ is janitors and security workers. They are supporting Fattah, along with a lot of good reform minded-folk on this site. I'm not familiar with Teamsters' Local 14M, but when I look at the total picture of who is supporting Maria, I am overwhelmingly impressed by the broad array of truly progressive change-oriented organizations and individuals supporting her. My time and $ are limited and mostly going to Irv (since that's my district), but I'd love to get to the benefit concert on Friday - should be a lot of fun for a great cause.
JPorter: Are you Kidding Me?
Are you really willing to make any leap of logic to accomplish your goal?
SEIU and AFSCME are both progressive LEADERS nationwide working to organize people who are not currently represented by a union. Your ignorance of these unions is fine--no one knows everything--but to spout your ignorance off on a blog without doing your own homework is not useful.
seiu.org and afscme.org would be good places to start answering your own questions.
Yikes, pardon me for being a
Yikes, pardon me for being a normal voter and asking an honest question. We can't all be union politicos.
Well - DC47 is to some of
Well - DC47 is to some of those other unions as The Progressive is to the NY Post. Hey - never thought I'd use those SAT analogy skills again!
I think the strong reaction
I think the strong reaction might have been because both AFSCME and SEIU have played an extremely positive role in local politics for many years. DC 47 in particular has been involved in things like raising the minimum wage, organizing labor against the Iraq war, and fighting for more funding for mass transit.
---
Check out my blog!
I am currently working for Marc Stier and Ellen Green-Ceisler.
Hey JPorter, Just to sort of
Hey JPorter,
Just to sort of talk a little bit more about this. Taking away for a second their general support of progressive politics, the people of DC47 are workers in the City's Health Department, they are our overworked social workers, etc. In short, they are people who are doing a lot of boots on the ground work every day to make Philly a better place.
jeesh, Ray
perhaps you need some sleep. she was hardly "spouting off without doing homework" -- she was asking a question in order to become more informed!! either you're getting worn out and paranoid from all the discussion here, or your drawing of lines between Us and Them of mayoral backers is causing you to stop reading the actual words.
deep breaths, everybody...
acm
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
— Margaret Mead
Ob disclaimer: I'm rooting for Nutter for Mayor, Stier, Ruben, Toy, and Kenney for Council, and Untermeyer for Sheriff. I get a pretty good night's sleep over these selections.
I got a good night's sleep
But to be clear ACM, JPorter is present on more blogs than this one, and more than one comment has been made about these unions by a number of folks.
I do NOT want there to be an Us or Them divide created ACM, as many of us will need to continue to work together after this election, because no matter who is elected, all of our problems will still not be solved.
However, the questions, and sometimes the attacks, on progressive labor indicate to me that we still have a long way to go in moving beyond a reform-only approach to changing Philadelphia and actually figuring out what fruit we want those reforms to bear.
My apologies for the union
My apologies for the union ignorance. As a non-union, non-politically active person, it's difficult to know all of the union ins and outs. I would say for most people like me, the only exposure we have to unions is when the trade unions send out their squads to shut down projects, intimidate voters, or get into fights on the convention center floor. Thanks for the clarification.
Maria
Philadelphia NOW is proud to endorse Maria Quinones Sánchez for the 7th council district. With her stellar record of service to the community, her intelligence, grace and personal integrity, Mara’s is one of the most impressive candidates we have ever endorsed. We are convinced that she will make a real difference in the district and in the larger Philadephia community.
Endorsement decisions are often very difficult and, no surprise, our active members don’t always agree. We endorse only in those races where there is strong support for a particular candidate and our support for Maria was unanimous, enthusiastic, and without reservation.
This year a group of progressive organizations came together under Gaetano's leadership to form the Take Back our City Coalition. We expected that there would be considerable overlap in our endorsements, and to an extent that was the case. However, Maria is the only candidate who received the endorsement of ALL the member organizations. Not every group has completed its endorsements process so the site does not yet reflect the complete picture. ( See endorsements at www.takebackourcity.org)
The support from the progressive community for Maria has been overwhelming.
Supporting Michael Nutter for Mayor
DC47 thanks you all for your support!
By the time I got around to defending our honor, our surrogates had already weighed in, and we thank you. I'll just add that Local 1723 was the only labor union in the entire city to endorse Maria the last time she ran.
All unions are not identical and sometimes their politics are not even remotely similar, but these distinctions are not well known to those outside our world. There's plenty of blame to go around for why this is true, but the press gets a big share. They pretty much only cover us when we have a strike or a scandal. An exception is Jane Von Bergen of the Inquirer, who has been doing terrific things promoting a multi-faceted look at the work unions do.
In response to JPorter, whom I do not know, I would also say that your knee jerk reaction to union support is especially disappointing. You seem to assume that if a union supports someone, they must be a hack. Even the building trades sometimes endorse people who progressives generally, as well as the progressive elements in the labor movement, also support. The reasons for supporting candidates vary widely, depending on the sectors we work in and what the big issues of the day are. Please don't judge us based on tired old stereotypes. We are all in dynamic organizations, with varying degrees of democracy and progressive values. And we all work hard to represent the interests of our members.
Kathy Black
Proud Supporter of Chaka Fattah for Mayor! (more on that later)
and about union support for Fattah...
I don't have time now (but will tomorrow) to explain all the many, many, many reasons a progressive union would be proud to support Fattah. But I can't let the "reform" swipe go by without comment. Nutter supporters seem to be blinded by his good government positions so completely that you can't see the truly progressive merits of anyone else. "Reform" can mean a lot of things, some good, some bad. But there's nothing about it that automatically means "progressive," and isn't that what this site is supposed to be about, and what all you folks are about?
Nothing is more progressive than a laser focus on economic justice. Period. And only one candidate in this race has that focus, and we all know that's Chaka Fattah.
Stay tuned... I will have plenty more to say on this when I have time, but now I have my union job to do.
Kathy Black
Proud supporter of Chaka Fattah for Mayor
kathy said it all
Not much I can add to my sister, Kathy Black's comments. Thanks, Ray, for the strident defense of SEIU and AFSCME. And to J Porter, you are entitled to seek knowledge. But in general, being pro-union is a good thing, IMHO.
Also, there are other progressive unions out there -- UFCW 1776 in particular has a long history of being on the right side of social justice issues. For me, a union merits the "progressive" label when its leadership and membership go beyond seeing the Union as a means for advancing the self-interest of its members to seeing the Union -- and organized labor as a whole -- as a powerful force for broad social change. Labor's certainly not the only progressive force out there, but without labor you won't have too much progress. Conversely, when labor is at its myopic worst, stagnation is the near-inevitable result.
Local 32BJ made its endorsements based not only on candidates' records on labor issues, but on their VISION for the City of Philadelphia. As is the case with AFSCME, the vast majority of our members live in Philadelphia. They care about and need a well-functioning City. Our Union is strong enough to make sure our members get good contracts. But what good is a decent paycheck if you get shot on the way home? If you can't rely on public transportation? If the only affordable housing is in blighted areas? If the public schools are falling apart?
A progressive candidate understands the relationship between collective bargaining and the broader social good. Understands that only through aggressive organizing and aggressive and visionary political action can we build a more just society. Understands that City services are critical for the health of the City.
That's why Local 32BJ is supporting Chaka Fattah for Mayor and Maria Quinones-Sanchez in the 7th CD.
Jeff Hornstein
"Progressive" Unions
While I agree with much of what Kathy and Jeff said (they are both friends and we have worked together on projects) I have to disagree about the divide between "progressive" unions and other unions. All unions are involved in the most fundamental social justice activity in America. That is shifting money from one class to another. That is what we have in common. The ability to call one union progressive allows people who do not like that union's politics to not support labor's goals. I see this in one candidate for mayor's main fundraisers being non-union builders, saying the building trades supported Santorum ( which they did not). This ignores the basic tenet of unionization, that is the pursuit of economic justice.
Some unions are "progressive" yet they do many things to stifle democracy internally. Others, like the trades are much more internally democratic. In the end we should all be together when any of our interests are attacked. The basic tenet of the labor movement was, and should be, "An injury to one is an injury to all".
I am a Democrat because I believe it helps achieve economic justice and opportunity. I believe in most of the social agenda, but in the end I am an economic justice democrat. btw Bob Brady is the only mayoral candidate who holds a Unin card.
I am an economic justice democrat
too, and that's why you and I agree on a lot, Lou, (which you expressed amazement about the other day.) But some unions do, sadly, look often at their very narrow interests when it doesn't have anything to do with social justice. The building trades tend to act as if social justice can be found in any building project which is supported by the powers that be. That's why they so often line up with the Chamber of Commerce on things like building Convention Centers, tunnels, highways, casinos, stadiums, anything that will put their members to work, no matter what the impact on communities. Some of these projects may have a social benefit, but that has nothing to do with why they're for them. And that's why unions are split on some of these projects, like, for instance, the stadiums. AFSCME opposed the building of stadiums because it was coming right out of the hide of City services, in addition to the hides of the workers they represent. And we all know the sorry record of some of the building trades in discriminating against black workers. So unfortunately, life is more complicated than whatever is good for (some) unions is good for social justice.
Furthermore, your candidate, Brady, has put forth the most radical tax cutting proposal of all the candidates. He has said he wants to repeal the BPT completely, no ifs ands or buts. Nutter probably wants to do that, and I believe he'll do everything in his power to make it happen, but he claims to want to "only" cut the net income part of the BPT to the level of the wage tax. Brady's kind of tax cutting is positively Reaganesque. And AFSCME is totally against it. So the picture is quite complex. And I don't think the building trades, by and large, are a progressive force in Philadelphia.
Dan Savage's (District 7) endorsements are huge!
I recently visited Councilman Dan Savage's campaign website (www.savageforcouncil.com). His endorsements are very impressive. They include the FOP, the Firefighters Local 22, Philadelphia Probation and Parole Officers and District Attorney Lynne Abraham among a long list of building trades.
Supporting Michael Nutter for Mayor.