AFL-CIO engaged in Washington’s ‘Top-2’ primary
AUGUST 1, 2008
CONGRESS
U.S. Congress, Dist. 3 - Brian Baird
STATEWIDE
Governor - Chris Gregoire
Lieutenant Governor - Brad Owen
Attorney General - John Ladenburg
Secretary of State - Sam Reed
State Treasurer - Jim McIntire
Auditor - Brian Sonntag
Insurance Commissioner
Mike Kreidler
Public Lands Commissioner
Peter Goldmark
Supreme Court Position 3
Mary Fairhurst
Supreme Court Position 4
Charles Johnson
Supreme Court Position 7
Debra Stephens
State Court of Appeals 3
Kevin M. Korsmo
LEGISLATIVE
17th Legislative District:
House Seat 1 - Tim Probst
House Seat 2 - Deb Wallace
Senate - Don Benton
18th Legislative District:
House Seat 1 -VaNessa Duplessie
House Seat 2 - Jonathan Fant
Senate - Jon Haugen
Carpenters, Electricians, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers,
eration.
WSLC is non-partisan, and in its
political work stays focused on eco-
nomic issues and workplace rights.
Democrats tend to have the best
records on those issues, but WSLC
backs Republicans as well, including,
in this primary, incumbent Secretary
of State Sam Reed and 17th district
State Sen. Don Benton. Benton had a
40 percent rating in 2007, but voted in
accord with the WSLC on some key
legislation expanding the right of pub-
lic employees to unionize.
In the tinted box to the left are can-
didates endorsed by WSLC for state-
wide races and for local legislative and
congressional races in Southwest
Washington. Washington has 49 state
legislative districts, each of which has
two representatives and one senator.
The Top 2 method applies only to
elections for partisan offices; non-par-
tisan offices like judgeships and city
offices are unaffected. Candidates for
each partisan office state a preference
for a political party, but that preference
does not imply that the party approves
of or associates with that candidate.
Voters do not have to declare a party
affiliation or select one party’s ballot to
vote in the primary.
A similar proposal will go before
Oregon voters as a ballot measure this
November.
The deadline for registering online
or by mail is past, but new voters can
register in person through Aug. 4. In
all but King and Pierce counties, the
election will be conducted entirely by
mail. Ballots will be mailed to voters
Aug. 1 and must be postmarked or de-
posited at a designated location before
8 p.m. Aug. 19. [This is different from
Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, in
which postmarks don’t count.]
WSLC is looking for volunteers to
take part in “Labor Neighbor” walks,
in which union members call or visit
other union households to educate
them about election issues important
to working families. The next Labor
Neighbor solidarity walk in Southwest
Washington will be Sunday, Aug. 3
from 1 to 5 p.m.; volunteers will meet
at the Vancouver Fire Fighters Hall,
2807 Fruit Valley Road. To sign up or
get more information, call Lori
Province of the WSLC at 206-351-
2956 or visit the federation Web site at
wslc.org.
A HARD RAIN FELL:
Struggles for civil rights in the 1960s
and their meaning today
A forum on Friday, August 8, at 7:00 pm
6401 SE Foster Rd, Portland, Oregon
(SEIU Hall)
Sponsored by SEIU Local 503
Civil & Human Rights Committee
Panel Speakers:
Union activist Ann Montague on Bayard Rustin
& Gay Liberation
Union organizer Bob Novick on the legacy of the 1960s
Civil rights leader Jarvis Tyner on
connecting the 1960s to now
Info: Contact Bob Rossi, 503 581-1505 X 141
Carpenters, Electricians, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers, Family
Carpenters, Electricians, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators,
OLYMPIA — Ballots are due to be
mailed out Aug. 1 to most Washington
voters and are due back Aug. 19.
Washingtonians made their picks
for president already, in a special Feb-
ruary caucus and primary, and backed
the eventual winners — Barack
Obama and John McCain. Now voters
will narrow the field in state and local
races.
It’s the first try-out of the state’s
new “Top 2” primary, in which the top
two vote-getters advance to the No-
vember general election, regardless of
which party they belong to. Top 2
passed via ballot measure in 2004, but
was delayed by a court challenge that
went all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
The Top Two primary may shift
politics the most in areas like Seattle
or Eastern Washington that are
strongly dominated by one political
party. In the past, candidates who won
the primary in such areas expected to
coast to victory in the general election.
Now voters in some cases may decide
in November between two candidates
of the same party.
Organized labor’s highest priority
race won’t be decided in the primary,
because the rematch between Republi-
can Dino Rossi and Democratic in-
cumbent Christine Gregoire will al-
most certainly go to November. Four
years ago, Gregoire won the gover-
nor’s race only on the second recount,
and by a small margin — 133 votes. A
Chelan County judge rejected a legal
challenge by Rossi to the results.
Rossi, a commercial real estate broker
and two-term former state senator, has
been campaigning ever since.
Rossi has been portraying himself
as a moderate, said David Groves,
spokesperson for the Washington State
Labor Council (WSLC), AFL-CIO.
But his record in the state senate was-
n’t moderate when it came to work-
place issues, Groves said. Rossi’s
votes earned him a 6 percent rating
from the WSLC, putting him in the
company of the most hardline anti-
union Republicans from Eastern
Washington. For example, he voted in
2003 to cut unemployment benefits up
to $200 a week. Unemployed con-
struction workers were hit especially
hard.
Labor is pushing for a high turnout
for Gregoire in the primary.
“The better she looks as an incum-
bent in the primary, the better it’ll be
going into final vote in November,”
said Mike Carnahan, secretary-treas-
urer of the Clark, Skamania, West
Klickitat Counties Central Labor
Council.
After conducting interviews, re-
viewing candidate questionnaires and
considering candidate records, the
state labor council announced endorse-
ments in May. Candidates have to have
two-thirds support of affiliates to get
the WSLC endorsement. Through
“solidarity charter” arrangements,
WSLC includes several locals of
unions of the Change to Win labor fed-
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Carpenters, Electricians, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers, Family
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