Two More Endorsements for Jerry McNerney
UPDATE 3/27: I have been informed that the vote at the South County Democratic Club was 67% in favor of endorsing McNerney.
This is just a quick update that the McNerney Campaign has received two new endorsements.
First, on Saturday, the McNerney Campaign was endorsed by the South County Democratic Club, which has members from Morgan Hill. This endorsement was first announced in this comment on Saturday, but I figured it should be brought up to the main page. I’m not sure what the vote was, but I have been told that the club has a 60% threshold to endorse, so it would seem like the club is solidly behind McNerney. We were told that Steve Filson gave a much better speech than McNerney at their candidates forum (in fact we were told that Filson “far outshined” McNerney), but I guess either the reports were overblown or else the club members considered different criteria than “shininess” when casting their votes.
Second, and more significant, the McNerney Campaign has just been endorsed by the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, which represents 250,000 workers in the state. The Teamsters are part of the Change to Win Coalition and so they do not participate in the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO) endorsement process. Consequently, this is another big endorsement for McNerney. (Hat tip readers CN and Hobie Dog).
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posted by Matt @ 3:35 PM
5 Comments:
Want a third?
I posted the following at the VPO list today:
As you might be able to tell from my posts to this list, I have some partiality to several of the opponents of Richard Pombo. Maybe it is time that I follow Scott's lead and make my thinking clear.
It is very important that we take both opportunities to Vote Pombo Out. The primary choice is clear. In the Republican Primary, it must be Pete McCloskey. I enthusiastically endorse his candidacy and will provide
whatever support I can to aid it.
If the primary follows normal patterns, there will be a low turn out affair and that means even relatively small numbers mean a lot. Matt and I have both called attention to the comparisons between the Illinois 6th CD primary and the ones in California. What neither of us stressed strongly enough is that even with all of the national attention and the strong infighting between Duckworth and Cegelis, the total turnout was low.
In the June 6 election, there are very few local contests in San Joaqiun County that will draw out people. The most interesting one is the Republican Primary between Gerry Machado and Susan Tucker in Tracy (17th AD). This underscores that importance of getting everyone possible out to vote. If anyone is currently registered as Decline to State (DTS), we need to get them to the polls to vote for McCloskey.
I also agree with Scott that, if McCloskey can not knock Pombo out of the race, people will work for whoever wins the Democratic Primary. Still I think that it is extremely important that the right person win
that primary. The right person will have to be someone who will motivate the Latino Community to get out and vote. I think that they will be more enthusiastic about McNerney than Filson or Thomas.
I do not believe that it is possible to ensure a victory against Pombo without a large turnout of Latino voters. In the past, they have not voted in relationship to their percentage of the population. The work has to be to register Latino's and to make sure that they are at the polls. Pete McCloskey recongized this. That is why he was at the head of the rally in Stockton this week. Jerry McNerney recognizes this, even though I personally think that he should have been at the March and had A.J. represent him at the endorsement meeting in Morgan Hill.
I have seen no evidence that Filson understand the importance of this
group to his chances. He has ignored the issue from what I seen. I truly believe that the time to make that up passed when there was no evidence of his presence in Stockton this weekend.
I believe that McNerney has developed the raport with a number of different communities, including the Latinos, but he has reached out to many others. I believe that this ability to reach out, to care, and to bring more people into the mix clearly separates McNerney from Filson as a candidate. I even understand the McNerney has talked with the California Farm Bureau, just to let them know that he is concerned, even though they have always backed Pombo.
If you follow this, it will give xome people a problem, because there are very good reasons to register as DTS and vote for McCloskey in the Republican Primary and also very good reasons to make sure that McNerney wins the Democratic Primary. I won't tell you how to act. It is your choice.
However, at the beginning of this race I heard a lot of talk about the fact that Filson could raise so much money that there would be pressure for McNerney to drop out. Maybe the time has come for the powers that
be in Democratic circles to realize that McNerney can bring more voters from more constituencies into the fight and that just maybe it is time for Filson, whose campaign seems to be sputtering, to drop out and save
you all a little angst.
Wait a minute here, I'm confused. On McNerney's website, it states that he has been endorsed by the California Brotherhood of Teamsters. I had never heard of such a thing. I googled it and came up with nothing. I then called my dad, a local teamster, and he had never heard of it either. My dad then called the president of his local and he had never heard about it either. He then called the president of another local and he had never heard of it either. I'm guessing they're probably all still calling each other, scratching their heads, and trying to figure this shit out. Now, my question is this: why is McNerney changing the name of the group that endorsed him? The reason seems obvious - and I am rather shocked that he would deliberately mislead voters (though, I guess I really shouldn't be so shocked by this stuff by now). Not to mention that all the locals are shocked and getting pissed. McNerney is essentially implying that the various locals have endorsed him and that is not true. However, after this, it is probably safe to say that he won't be getting the endorsements of the teamster locals.
On the South County Dem Club endorsement, I heard that the vote was extremely close and McNerney only got the endorsement by two votes. Also, if the endorsement was based only the speeches of the candidates months ago there, the endorsement would have been made immediately after that meeting. So to say that McNerney must have done really well at that meeting back in Jan. or that Filson didn't do as well as some people think is just ridiculous.
I agree that the name on McNerney's website is erronious. The correct name, as I wrote in the piece, is the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council. The link I provided was broken and will be fixed momentarily. If you follow the link I provide you will see that McNerney has been endorsed by the Joint Councils 7 and 38. But you can go here in the meantime
The reason seems obvious - and I am rather shocked that he would deliberately mislead voters (though, I guess I really shouldn't be so shocked by this stuff by now). Not to mention that all the locals are shocked and getting pissed. McNerney is essentially implying that the various locals have endorsed him and that is not true. However, after this, it is probably safe to say that he won't be getting the endorsements of the teamster locals.
Ummm, I think this is absurd on the face of it.
I can't help but wonder why some other guy is such an angry person. We are all trying to figure out the best way to beat Pombo and the more clear it becomes that McNerney is the best way to do it, the angrier he seems to get.
Personally, I don't find it helpful at all to see all the invective toward McNerney and I can't see how it could possibly reflect well on any other candidate.
The info on the website was posted by myself. The endorsment came with the discloser that the group represented 250,000 Teamster members in the state and thats why its mentioned as such on our homepage.
I had questions about the name of the organization and thats what I was told to use during our campaign meeting today. I'll call tomorrow and ask for how they want their name represented on the site.
However, if you look at their website please note the following:
The Public Affairs Council advances policies for all Teamster Local Unions and Joint Councils in the State of California in the fields of public affairs, political action and legislative programs.
My apologies to our brothers and sisters at Teamsters for the error. And thanks to someotherguy for pointing it out.
sos out!!!
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