Today Teamsters local #89 officially endorsed Brian Simpson Republican cnadidate for State House District 46. What can be said.
Brian has been a union member for over 20 years and supports working families and labor. This endorsement by the Teamsters goes far beyond a normal political environment. It sends a message to others that perhaps union leadership is finally tiring of the lip service they have been given by the Democratic Party who have done notihng to further the labor movement in the State or the Country.
Kudos to the Teamsters Local 89 and President Zuckerman for sending this letter out and showing at least one union is proud to support a true labor candidate who not only speaks the talk but walks the walk.
Congrats Brian!
Republicans and unions.. sounds like strange bed fellows to me. Honestly now, who really cares about endorsements anyway? I would almost go as far to say that the teamster endorsement could prove to hurt Brian. I know there are plenty of people out there that wait to hear who the news, unions support and then vote the other way. This is especially true in judges races. Hope the endorsement helps and not hurts you Brian.
ReplyDeleteHow important are endorsements? Depends. Typically unions back the Democratic candidate no matter what when they endorse. 100% of the time? No but dang near.
ReplyDeleteEndorsements send a message to the voter and in many cases there are still those who vote within an organization solely on the endorsement so Brian will get votes.
How much it is worth? A great deal in this case.
It sends a message that labor is tired of lip service by Democratic leaders such as Larry Clark and are finally getting behind true labor candidates.
Take Abramson for example. In 2006 he received a UAW endorsement simply because he was the incumbent, and spoke with some UAW members outside the forum provided for all candidates, and brokered a backdoor endorsement by promising to buy some new ford vehicles for Louisville. This was an easy promise for any candidate to make since it would be supporting local jobs and the local community. No other candidate was asked where they stood on this issue or were allowed equal time to discuss it.
It was done behind closed doors against the rules of their own selection process.
This got him the endorsement.
Abramson's record on labor was dismal at best at the time especially in regards to Ford.
Abramson was for the STAR program and even went so far as to publicly call Ford and the UAW leadership liars because they were against it.
He fought against the PLA for the downtown arena. Again a vote against labor yet received an endorsement because he agreed to buy 10 Fords for the City with our tax money.
I was told by one of the guys that made that decision to endorse him that this was politics and the way it is. And that is the problem of why we are where we are today.
For any union to stand against the backdoor politics and strong arm ego driven form of government led by those such as Larry Clark and Abramson is a huge deal for those of us in labor and who support labor issues.
Simpson walks the walk of union labor and is not a Democrat. To receive this endorsemet is a good thing for him and the union IMO.
Hats off to the Teamsters for backing a true labor guy not a power driven egoist like Clark simply because of his position and fear of retribution in "politics."
It took guts to rage against that machine and the union should be proud.
Thanks so much for writing.