Election '96: Labor holds the line

by Fred Gaboury

This article was reprinted from the November 9,1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

The right-wing drive to seize control of the federal government by capturing the White House and strengthening their grip on Congress fell short on both counts Tuesday as voters gave President Clinton a new lease on the presidential mansion and significantly reduced the GOP majority in the House of Representatives.

The right wing took it on the chin in campaign after campaign across the county: Paul Wellstone's rout of Rudy Boschwitz in Minnesota's senatorial contest, Cynthia McKinney's reelection to Congress in Georgia; the defeat in Illinois of Al Salvi, the darling of the militia groups; the victory of Julia Carson, the first African American woman elected to Congress from Indiana. Voters returned all sitting Democratic members of the House.

The string of GOP defeats continued with Carolyn McCarthy, the Republican-turned-Democrat who boasted that she "defeated the NRA" in her upset victory of a GOP first-termer in New York; Dennis Kucinich, who overcame a vicious red-baiting attack to defeat Martin Hoke, Ohio's millionaire GOP congressman; and the election of the nation's first-ever Chinese-American governor.

And in all of them the AFL-CIO, with its nationally-coordinated Labor '96 campaign, emerged as the driving force that set the parameters of the debate, be it for the presidency of the United States or seats on the Dade County School Board in Florida.

Gary Cox, a key staff member in McKinney's Georgia office, said the contribution of the AFL-CIO to McKinney's "Street Heat Team" - a team of 100 union volunteers that began a door-to-door "get out the vote" drive early on election day - was "awesome. We had an 80 percent turn-out in our targeted precincts."

McKinney, forced to run in a newly-formed district because of court-ordered redistricting, won reelection by a 58-42 majority in a district that is only 30 percent African American. Lynn Wechsberg, who described herself as a "white, suburbanite soccer grandmother" and former activist in the New Jersey Republican Party, worked tirelessly in McKinney's campaign.

"I have become more thoughtful," she said, adding that she was "particularly offended by the extreme, almost fanatical activity of the Christian Coalition in Georgia."

Warren Gould called Labor '96 the first rung on the ladder for change. The New Haven, Conn. Central Labor Council, of which Gould is president, played a decisive role in two congressional districts targeted by Labor '96. "We defeated Gary Franks and increased Samuel Gejdenson's margin of victory from fewer than 50 votes in 1994 to more than 10 percent this year."

Gould said the next step was to "assure that regular, everyday working and unemployed people get the representation they deserve. And that means continuing what we've begun by organizing the unorganized."

Charles Deppert, president of the Indiana AFL-CIO, agrees. "We deserve an "A" for effort but the labor movement has to grow if it is to provide a voice for working people."

Deppert said the Indianapolis labor council had a response team of about 100 volunteers who canvassed Carson's district three times on election day. "This made it possible for Carson to win by 10,000 votes in a district that is only 27 percent Black.

Bill Moore, communications director for the Minnesota AFL-CIO, called Sen. Wellstone's 52-to-41 win a "decisive victory" for grassroots, door-to-door, one-on-one organizing. "We had more than 2,000 people working the phones or ringing door bells."

Moore said the state federation had been instrumental in increasing the bloc of labor-endorsed members of the state legislature. Moore added that, although the right wing had been "chastened," labor should have no illusions. "They are still there and we have to keep the heat on [and] we aren't giving a blank check to the Democratic Party."

For Cindy Hall, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO, the Labor '96 campaign "helped us energize our members to deal with local elections as well."

Hall, who is also legislative director for the teachers' union, said, "We endorsed candidates for eight of the positions on the nine-member board. We would have won all of them except for one candidate who put $300,000 of her own money into her campaign ... she bought the election."

The Center for Responsive Politics estimates that nearly $2 billion was spent on the presidential and congressional races in 1996, with corporations dishing out seven times as much money as the $35 million spent by the AFL-CIO to finance Labor '96.