Alameda County Central Labor Council Endorses Jerry McNerney

I have been informed by someone from the McNerney Campaign that Jerry McNerney has been endorsed by the Alameda County Central Labor Council, the AFL-CIO umbrella group in the county.  There is also a one-sentence announcement on his website to that effect.  

This means that McNerney has been endorsed by two of the four Central Labor Councils that are involved with CA-11.  He had already been endorsed by the San Joaquin-Calaveras Central Labor Council.  Since San Joaquin County has the majority of the voters in the district, their endorsement was an early boost for the McNerney Campaign.

However, Alameda County has a much larger union presence than San Joaquin County and from what I understand the Alameda County CLC is a much stronger political organization than the San Joaquin-Calaveras CLC.  So this is a big deal for McNerney as well.  

This ought to translate into a lot of boots on the ground for McNerney.  And I suspect that it will generate some donations from Washington labor PACs who see the writing on the wall and see how McNerney has monopolized the union endorsements to this point (although I should note that Steve Filson has clearly gotten money from Labor groups, more than McNerney in fact).

Furthermore, this endorsement will probably make it harder for Filson to get the endorsement of either of the other CLCs.  I assume his best shot remains the Contra Costa County CLC because of Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher’s sphere of influence.  But I assume it will be harder for the CoCo County CLC to buck the trend, even if they wanted to, now that this endorsement has been made.  

Also, this endorsement coming as it does on the heels of the revelation that Filson will be endorsed by state Senator Mike Machado (a different angle on that here), will no doubt steal some of Filson’s thunder.  Without question, getting the Machado endorsement is a victory for Filson.  But although Filson is selling himself as a union man, it does not look like the unions are buying it too readily. And in a week that he wants to encourage the perception that he is winning the horserace, this endorsement certainly problematizes things for him.  

With this endorsement, McNerney comes out of the last couple of days looking a lot better than he did before last quarter’s fundraising numbers came out.  Even if you think Filson is in the lead, and I do not think so at this point, I think you have to admit that McNerney has gained ground.  And this is true with respect to both how strong McNerney is as a candidate and how strong McNerney will be perceived to be as a candidate.  Both of which are important.