AFL-CIO aiming at GOP governors in 2014

[Scuba]

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/afl-cio-aiming-at-gop-governors-in-2014-95489.html

The nation’s most prominent labor organization plans to throw its political weight most heavily into a half-dozen governors’ races in the 2014 cycle, focusing on states where the outcome of gubernatorial elections will be most “consequential” for union members and working-class voters, the AFL-CIO’s top strategist said Tuesday.

Meeting with a small group of reporters, AFL-CIO political director Michael Podhorzer said that the unrelenting state of gridlock in Washington means that state elections will likely have a greater impact on real people’s lives than federal elections.

He named six Republican governors at the top of the AFL-CIO target list: Rick Scott of Florida, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Paul LePage of Maine, John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania.

...

Major labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, have battled Republican governors in the states ever since the 2010 election swept a huge number of them into office. The AFL-CIO has made no secret of its hope to reverse that result, telling POLITICO last December that gubernatorial elections in the Midwest would be a major focus for the 2014 cycle.

[madokie]

1. I can get behind this

Its about time they throw their weight around some.
Organize labor is what gave us the middle class. A middle class that is all but gone today.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Damn Cookie...

...it's time to stop with the 2016 games and focus on the real battle ahead; next year's election. There's probably more at stake on the state level than in any election in my memory; from union busting to women's reproductive rights, GLBT rights, disenfranchising minorities and privitizing more and more of the public sector.

Here's hoping the union's step up big and that there's a major awareness campaign along with a big ground game that will educate and energize voters. The rushpublicans are betting Democrats will stay at home and be able to solidify their gains in many states and grab others with ALEC money and influence. This tide needs to be turned...

[charmay]

3. It would be sweet justice

to have these tea bag governors leaving with their tails between their legs. Battling Koch and ALEC $ and influence will be an uphill battle though.

[AllyCat]

4. Please!!! And I want to see my union go OUTSIDE of Madison

and work into the surrounding, purple and red areas. We need more help there, but every time I go to volunteer to canvass, I get the bluest of the blue neighborhoods.

[SunSeeker]

5. Good. These GOP governors have been killing us...literally.

I'll never forget Brewer's cold-hearted cutoff of funding for poor transplant patients. And Walker...don't even get me started.

[Lee-Lee]

6. Nothing in NC?

But hell, we have had a law that bans collective bargaining for ALL state and local government employees and we couldn't even get that changed when Democrats had full control.

I guess they have written us off.

[arely staircase]

7. very smart

state legislatures too. we will not have fair representation in congress until the gerrymandered lines are redrawn by democratic legislators.

[washnwmn]

8. Go go AFL-CIO

My dad was a Union construction ironworker for 60 years. Glad to see the union getting tough on politicians trying to undermine the working man. Time to fight back!

Glad to hear too, that unions are backing and encouraging worker owned co-op businesses as well. Keep up the Great work!

And in memory of my dad and all he believed in and stood for: a reminder to get behind the Longshoremen in the Oregon and Washington, fighting the big grain corporations, who the mainstream media has ignored.

[Scuba]

9. +1 for the Longshoremen.

[Lugnut]

10. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania.

Yes!!! This is great news.

[lastlib]

11. We should ALL be doing this!!

I'm not saying neglect the national Congressional elections, but we need more focus on the state races that will hit people close to home. The GOPeee has built much of its national power on its control of state legislative and executive offices; it's how they are able to gerrymander the House seats so they can attain national power. If we don't contest them strongly, they will retain that power and they will hurt us badly with it. If we do fight it, we can get some leverage against them and build stronger opposition to their scorched-earth policies. Get behind these efforts, folks!

[navarth]

12. I am SO GLAD to see SNYDER on that list. Please come to Michigan!!

We need all the help we can get here.