DeStefano Wins Backing of 40th Labor Union

Website Vooweb.com provides the biggest collection of professional Web 2.0 Templates. Web 2.0 Templates - its a website templates which made by world-class designers. Buy our Web 2.0 Templates | A family cooking recipes with hundreds of healthy, whole-food cooking recipes for the home cook. Healthy Food cooking Recipes For Your Entire Family

DeStefano Wins Backing of 40th Labor Union

New Haven Register May 16, 2006
Andy Bromage and Gregory B. Hladky , Register Staff

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. scored a weighty union endorsement for his gubernatorial campaign Monday, winning the backing of 35,000 state and municipal workers, pushing his tally of labor supporters past 160,000.

Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Connecticut's largest AFL-CIO union, representing employees in state and local government, school boards and the private sector, became the 40th state labor organization to endorse the seven-term mayor.

Sal Luciano, Council 4's executive director, said his union decided to endorse DeStefano because "he understands and embraces the challenges facing (Connecticut) workers." Luciano said DeStefano's rival for the Democratic nomination, Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, did well in his meeting with the union, but that DeStefano came out ahead "in terms of empathy ...and a greater degree of specificity."

The endorsement comes five days before this weekend's state Democratic nominating convention in Hartford. The winner will challenge Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in November, whose job approval rating sits at 77 percent, according to polls.

At a press conference in Hartford, DeStefano trumpeted his union support.

"We haven't had that kind of teamwork in the Democratic Party since 1986 when we last elected a governor," said DeStefano, referring to the victory of Democrat William A. O'Neill's re-election campaign.

Roy Occhiogrosso, a Malloy campaign adviser, downplayed the significance of the new union endorsement. "Dan has a lot of significant support among the rank and file in every union in the state," Occhiogrosso said. "A few union leaders made a decision to go in a different direction."

Earlier Monday, DeStefano nabbed the endorsement of New Haven's largest manufacturing union, Local 243 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, employed at lock and hardware maker Sargent. It was the local's first endorsement for governor in its 67-year history.

Union President Raymond Pompano said the union decided to inject itself in this year's race because DeStefano supports universal health care.

"I've heard the two Democratic candidates speak and John DeStefano is clearly our man," Pompano said. "John believes in manufacturing jobs. We could bring jobs back to Connecticut, not lose them to other states. But when there is no plan in place, this is what happens and there is clearly no plan in place."

A DeStefano campaign spokesman said the Council 4 endorsement appears gives DeStefano the two-thirds backing of Connecticut AFL-CIO members needed to clinch the labor federation's endorsement.

Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olson did not return a telephone call seeking comment Monday, but has previously said that DeStefano is the only candidate with enough support to be in the running for the AFL-CIO's blessing. The federation has not endorsed a candidate for governor in at least 18 years.

Arthur Paulson, a political science professor at Southern Connecticut State University, predicted the union endorsements would help DeStefano in a Democratic primary, but would have little impact in the general election given Rell's popularity.

"I don't think labor endorsements really change voters' minds, but it means there will be troops on the ground on Election Day," Paulson said.