Election Round Up
Election results in a large organization are always a
mixed bag of exhilarating victories and dispiriting defeats.
This election season we lost some but won more
and on balance came out ahead.
Our top priority was to elect Mark Ridley-Thomas to
the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Early
polls indicated his opponent, Bernard Parks was ahead,
as a product of his stronger name identification. To
overcome this advantage AFSCME collaborated with
other unions and community organizations to form the
Alliance for a Stronger Community, an independent expenditure
committee committed to the election of
Ridley-Thomas. When the ballots were tallied Ridley-
Thomas had 45.71% compared to Park’s 39.54%. However,
because there were 7 minor candidates each pulling
a small percentage of the vote, neither Ridley-
Thomas was unable to muster the 50%+1 needed for
outright victory. Therefore, the Ridley-Thomas and
Parks will face off in November.
AFSCME members who were candidates did very well.
Local 3090 member Norma Torres won by a wide margin
over her opponent in the 61st Assembly District. She
will face a Republican opponent in a heavily Democratic
District and is likely to be sworn in to the Assembly in
December.
Local 2712 member Carole Lutness ran unopposed in
the 38th Assembly District Democratic primary. Her
district is dominated by the Republican Party, but anything
can happen in politics.
Joy Brown Price, of Local 585 was elected to the Democratic
Party County Committee in the 51st Assembly
District
In San Diego AFSCME endorsed candidate, Marti Emerald
led in the race for City Council District 7 and will
be in a run off. Local 127 endorsed Marty Block who
won in the Democratic Party primary in the 78th Assembly
District.
In Torrance, AFSCME local 1117 helped elect Cliff Numark
to one of four seats on the city council up for
grabs.
We were successful in regard to ballot measures. Local
1117 participated in a community coalition that successfully
passed Proposition T in Torrance to extend
their Telephone Utility Tax. In Covina AFSCME Local
3325 helped push through Proposition C, their
Utility User Tax extension.
Tenants and homeowners should be gratified that Proposition
98 failed and Proposition 99 passed. This means
that tenants in rent controlled units will be protected from
excessive rent increases and homeowners will be protected
from certain eminent domain actions.
Seven out of the eight judges recommended by AFSCME’s
court Locals were elected. |
