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I’ve been writing about the special election in Hawaii, where the DCCC has apparently favored LieberDem Ed Case over Colleen Hanabusa in the winner-take-all special election to replace Neil Abercrombie, who is running for Governor. With two prominent Democrats on the ballot and only one Republican, Charles Djou, there is concern that splitting the Dem vote will tip the scales over to Djou.
Well, labor has a different conception of which Democrat should be supported to prevent such a scenario, and they’re getting involved in the race starting this week, promoting Colleen Hanabusa as the most worker-friendly candidate.
Labor unions are set to drop 2 mail pieces in support of Hanabusa this week, a source tells Hotline OnCall, aimed at convincing union workers that Case’s record is out of step with labor’s political goals. An AFL-CIO mailer and one from the Longshoreman’s union highlight some issues on which Case stands against labor positions while touting Hanabusa’s work on unions’ behalf.
Hanabusa has backing from the HI teachers union, a powerful force in state politics. And the mailers are aimed at the district’s 52K AFL-CIO members and 30K Working America members, according to union figures, a significant portion of the electorate.
Case, meanwhile, hewed to more centrist positions during his time in Congress. He left in ’07 after falling short in a primary bid against Sen. Daniel Akaka (D), a race that caused rifts between Case and the state party establishment. Both Akaka and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) back Hanabusa.
FDL News has obtained the two mailers, and they really slam Ed Case (both PDFs):
The first mailer criticizes Case for supporting layoffs for public employees, cutting pensions, watering down benefits, privatizing health care and public employee jobs, and even weakening worker safety laws. The second mailer, from the ILWU, says “Ed Case will put your job at risk,” and hits him for wanting to exempt Hawaii from the Jones Act, “which ensures domestic vessels are built and crewed by American workers.” Both mailers tout Colleen Hanabusa as “the best candidate for working families.”
AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale tells FDL News that this is only the beginning of a continuing campaign between now and the election, including mail, phone banks, canvassing and GOTV support. “For us the decision was based on support for working families, we think Hanabusa will be much better on those,” Vale said in an email exchange.
This is an aggressive counterpoint to the rumored support from the DCCC for Ed Case. So far the D-Trip has only dropped about $47,000 into ads criticizing Charles Djou.
Labor certainly is not deferring to the judgment of national Democratic operatives in this race.
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Rahm will tell labor to lay off Case & labor will cave.
Can we PLEASE get rid of the “Iranian Bombs are Killing Americans” ad that is appearing endlessly on this site? The ad features video that interleaves scenes of roadside bombs killing people in Iraq with video of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad speaking. This is crude viral rightist propaganda and this web site should not be hosting ads for “VoteVets”. The ad has controls that allow the viewer to email the ad to others or inject into a facebook page. FDL should not be viralizing rightist bomb-Iran propaganda.
Hayabusa for what?
Oh…it’s Hanabusa. Heh…
If I had to bet, I’d go with Ecahn at #1. Rahm will do the Chief Enforcer thing and Labor will stand down. Putz.
Exactly. We are talking about the same AFL-CIO that sold out its membership in Pennsylvania and nationwide.
*heh* Labor rules supreme in Hawaii, M’dear…! They’re apt to tell Rahmbo what he can do with that notion…! ;-)
O/T: Speaking of Labor.
The larger point in this context is that big labor ought to be ignoring Rahm while paying close attention to the daily realities faced by its membership. Let’s hope they don’t cave. I won’t hold my breath.
Doesn’t matter.
As long as the AFL-CIO wants the EFCA to pass they’ll kowtow to everything King Obama wants.
Yeah. I have to admit I was quite surprised as a GI at just how powerful even the public unions are/were in the islands.
I had to be careful when I announced in the offices that the computer system was up and running if it was before 7:30AM as it could be construed that I was telling the civilians to go to work. So my work around was to stand in front of the desk of one of the other GIs and mention it in a loud enough voice that all could hear me but directed at the GI so no one could complain.
Apparently you’ve never been here to the Isles, eh…? ;-)
This is wonderful news. I wonder why labor picked this race to take a stand?
Case must be worse than I imagined.
He truly pissed off the Party Apparatchik when he tried to upend Akaka…! Of course his blue dog tendencies haven’t helped him either…!
Geez, who pissed in your Wheatees this morning?
If you’d looked at the mailer you’d have seen it was produced by the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, not the national organization. They have been against Case all along, and the evil Rahm has nothing to do with it. They don’t like Case because Case is a rich neo-liberal who has waved his middle finger at labor numerous times over the years.
I know absolutely nothing about local politics in Hawaii. But this seems pretty typical. Party establishment/DNCC supporting the Blue Dog.
Maybe progressives and unions will eventually get the message. We ain’t welcome to participate in the party or bring our interests. Just vote for them baby.
Indeed, if you check the stats, I think you’ll find that Hawaii is among the top three most unionized states in the country.
Public employees are important, but other unions like ILWU and Teamsters have strong organizations. Back in th old days, unions even had strong representation in the agricultural sector.
Just like with Lieberman – the state NARAL refused to back him. We really have to distinguish between state and DC-based orgs.
Well, fwiw, Case is a known in DC, having won the special election after Patsy Mink died. Then he chucked it to run against Akaka as CTut mentioned.
Btw… Case only won the special election because he self funded himself and nobody in Labor had heard about him before… His Repugnant foe was a Bible Thumper(Gabbard) running on the sole plank of killing Gay Marriages…!
This household got a call yesterday from the DSCC. Luckily for them, my husband answered and gave them the moderate version of “go fuck yourselves.” If they’d gotten me, they would have been treated to a list of all the Blue Dogs I didn’t want my money going to.
Belatedly told husband he should have said to DSCC that he’d donate if funds went ONLY to Democratic Senate challenger in SD. [Dems neglected to select such challenger, giving the vile Thune a free ride.]
If it has any good sense at all, DCCC won’t be calling here. How anyone can give to these fools is beyond me, but I guess for a bunch of the PACs, they’re doing just what they want [funding Blue Dogs].
I continue to maintain that I’d love to see a news story on a) how many “unsubscribes” these folks [including DNC & OFA] are getting; and b) what their level of fund-raising is, compared to past years.
And PS: why the hell is book salon featuring an item from the OFA folks? And at a time when we’re supposed to be on our best behavior? That will be QUITE difficult!!
Belated told husband he should have said to DSCC that he’d donate, but only if funds went to support Senate challenger in SD. [Dems have "passed" on fielding a candidate in the SD senate race, giving the vile John Thune a free ride.] Twinkles the Telephone caller probably wouldn’t have realized the snark.
The EFCA’s already dead. There’s no reason for the AFL-CIO to stand down now, and every bit of reason for them to want to bring Rahm to heel.
Ed Case is not Steve Case. Does your cousin give you money? Grassroots is how most folks do it, and so did Ed. You can check the campaign $ records, if you want the facts.
Ed has a record of being kind to labor, both in State office AND in the U.S. House. The fact that Inouye says “don’t vote for him” is enough to get the automatons to kowtow. Check the facts. Hanabusa takes credit for something she didn’t do…what has Ed said about what he has done that was a lie?