Oct 1-2010:NWLP
9/28/10
10:01 AM
Page 2
...Voters have clear choice between Heck and Herrera
(From Page 1)
tivated by concern about the decline of
the American Dream. Heck is putting
his own money into the race, and has
made rescuing the middle class the heart
of his campaign. In interviews and cam-
paign events, he hammers this message.
“I believe the greatest domestic chal-
lenge facing America is the creation of
family-wage jobs and getting this econ-
omy moving.” Heck said Sept. 14, kick-
ing off a “Let’s Get to Work” jobs tour.
In the tour, he’s asking business owners
what government can do to help their
businesses succeed and hire more em-
ployees. Heck began the tour at Chris-
tensen Shipyards, a Vancouver boat-
building company that is branching out
to make wind turbines.
Creating jobs has become a moral
imperative, Heck said, because a job is-
n’t just about economic security, but
about self-respect.
“The American Dream is that our
children will do better than we did,”
Heck said. “That’s what’s at stake.”
Running for office after two decades
out of politics, Heck was unknown to
many local labor activists. But several
long-time labor leaders know him well.
Rick Bender, president of the Washing-
ton State Labor Council (AFL-CIO),
served alongside Heck in the Washing-
ton Legislature, and remembers him as
an ally on workers’ collective bargain-
ing rights and a staunch supporter of
school funding. Heck’s votes during
five terms in office earned him a 72 per-
cent lifetime rating from the state labor
council. Heck voted against the use of
strikebreakers, for providing unemploy-
ment benefits to workers during labor
disputes, and for giving collective bar-
gaining rights to groups of public em-
ployees. In other cases, he defied the la-
bor council recommendations, voting to
limit public employee pensions and the
right of individuals to sue when prod-
ucts cause harm.
Ed Barnes, former president of the
Columbia Pacific Building Trades
Council and retired business manager
of International Brotherhood of Electri-
cal Workers Local 48, has also known
Heck since the 1970s. Barnes’ brother
worked with Heck’s father as Teamsters
Shannon Walker (left), president of the Southwest Washington Central Labor
Council, makes a point to Third District Congressional candidate Denny Heck
during a Painters Union “It’s About Jobs” bus tour stop in Vancouver last
month. In the background is Lucy Carrier of the American Federation of
Teachers-Washington.
at Vancouver Fast Freight. Like Bender,
Barnes describes Heck as smart, hon-
est, even-tempered, “a guy who sup-
ports business but also supports labor.”
The Columbian has characterized
both Heck and Herrera as moderates.
Barnes disagrees with the latter.
“If she’s a moderate, then George
Bush, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney are
screaming liberals,” Barnes said.
As chair of IBEW Local 48’s South-
west Washington political action com-
mitttee, Barnes talks to legislators of
both parties. But Herrera, as a state leg-
islator, rebuffed invitations to meet with
him to discuss labor’s agenda.
Herrera failed to return calls from
the Northwest Labor Press. She de-
clined to fill out a Washington State La-
bor Council questionnaire. She ignored
an invitation to appear before the South-
west Washington Central Labor Coun-
cil to talk about her campaign. She has
said she opposes the Employee Free
Choice Act, a bill to make it easier for
workers to unionize and get a first con-
tract. The bill is labor’s top-priority bill
in Congress; Heck supports it.
The state labor council rates Herrera
at 19 percent for her votes in three leg-
islative sessions. For example, she voted
‘no’on a $45-a-week increase in unem-
ployment benefits, and ‘no’ on a pro-
posal (since referred to this November’s
ballot) to put Washingtonians to work
doing energy efficiency retrofits in pub-
lic schools.
Jobs and the economy are big this
election year. In Clark County, official
unemployment is 13.9 percent.
“What ideas do you have to put peo-
ple back to work? That’s what matters
to our people,” said Bender.
Heck and Herrera are both talking
jobs, but are utterly different in their ap-
proach. To get the economy moving
again, Heck believes in government in-
vestment in green energy, making
money available to community banks to
loan to small businesses, and extending
unemployment benefits to the long-
term unemployed. Herrera has made it
clear she opposes any government re-
sponse — except for cutting taxes.
And as a signer of Grover Norquist’s
“Taxpayer Protection Pledge, ”she’s
solemnly bound to oppose any and all
tax increases.
Herrera says she’s greatly concerned
about the federal budget deficit, and
even blames the deficit for joblessness,
saying the reason businesses of all sizes
are afraid to hire is that they fear new
taxes they may have to pay in the future
to repay the federal debt. Yet Herrera
wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for
wealthy taxpayers, which would add to
the debt.
Heck wants to extend the Bush tax
cuts — but only for taxpayers with in-
comes under $250,000 a year. And
Heck said a recession is a great time to
invest in infrastructure. He’s a big ad-
vocate of investment in green energy as
an alternative to imported oil.
Heck is also an outspoken supporter
of building a new bridge over the Co-
lumbia River — a high priority for local
building trades unions. “We’re coming
up on the centennial of a bridge that was
designed before mass-produced auto-
mobiles,” Heck said. Building a new
bridge, Heck said, will employ 27,500
people in the short term. “That’s a shot
in the arm. But that’s not why we do it.
We do it because we need to move peo-
ple and freight more efficiently in this
region if we want to grow our econ-
omy.”
Heck says if he had been in Con-
gress at the time, he would have voted
against the 2008 bank bailout, but for
the 2009 stimulus bill. But, similar to a
critique some union leaders have made,
Heck says the stimulus act wasn’t big
enough, should have been better tar-
geted to the hardest-hit areas, and
should have focused more on infra-
structure spending and less on tax cuts.
Moreover, Heck said, stimulus funds
for infrastructure didn’t get spent
quickly enough.
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OCTOBER 1, 2010