SACRAMENTO (AP) As recent polls show more support for
recalling Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday, state employees, teachers and
other union workers are increasing their phone banks, distribution
of fliers and door-to-door visits to stop the recall.
``This week, a lot of us are volunteering more than once a week.
We're getting worried because of the polls,'' said Linda Tubach, a
high school social studies teacher in Los Angeles who is
volunteering at a phone bank.
Because 3 million Californians belong to unions, their efforts
can be a potent political force, as the results of the last three
statewide elections have shown, said Democratic consultant Kam
Kuwata.
``I have been the victim of the labor push and the beneficiary
of the labor push,'' said Kuwata, who is not affiliated with any of
the gubernatorial campaigns.
In 1998, Kuwata saw his candidate, Rep. Jane Harman, get left
behind in the Democratic primary after unions urged their members
to vote against Proposition 226, which would have required unions
to get their members' permission to spend money on political
causes, and to vote for then-Lt. Gov. Davis.
Exit polls following the 1998 primary found that labor families
voted overwhelmingly for Davis.
``Davis was certainly coming up on the polls, but they had a
very substantial push to vote against the union item and for
Davis,'' Kuwata said.
Nationally, union-led get-out-the-vote drives helped spur to
Vice President Al Gore to a 500,000-vote lead over Republican
George Bush in the 2000 presidential election, although Bush ended
up winning the electoral vote. That Democratic success led the
Republicans to follow suit last year, when similar vote drives
boosted GOP candidates in several states.
Union-led voters drives could contribute as much as 2 percentage
points to a candidate's tally, said Jack Pitney, a professor of
government at Claremont McKenna College. That ``doesn't sound like
much, but in a close election, that can be decisive.
``We turn out in greater numbers than other groups,'' Tubach
said. ``That's why labor is a significant political force. It's
because we've learned how to do phone banks and precinct walks and
get organized this way.''
In other states, churches and religious organizations can
mobilize voters, but that's not a force in California, Pitney said.
``The Republicans don't really have a force quite to match
labor. You've got the Republican party apparatus itself, and
business groups, but the unions are the gold standard of
get-out-the-vote drives,'' he said.
``In every election, Republicans should worry about union
get-out-the-vote drives,'' Pitney said. ``When they're pumped up
and motivated, they're always a force.''
By election day, the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO,
expects to have spent more than $5 million to push its
recommendations: No on recall, yes on Bustamante and no on
Proposition 54, said spokesman Nathan Ballard.
About 2.1 million workers are members of unions under the
AFL-CIO umbrella, Ballard said. The union tried to simplify the
complex ballot by customizing the fliers to union members. The list
of candidates' names rotates, so ballots in each of the 80 Assembly
districts will be different.
That means voters receiving these mailings ``will see a
facsimile of their exact ballot with our choice highlighted,''
Ballard said.
Other unions backing Davis include the California State
Employees Association, representing 132,000 state workers and
retirees, and the California Teachers Association, the largest of
the state's two teachers union, with 335,000 members.
CSEA will spend $650,000 in the short election cycle, with some
going to oppose Proposition 54, the initiative that would limit the
ability of government to collect information based on ethnic
background, but the majority of it is invested in keeping Davis in
office.
CTA will spend $500,000 to let members know the union's position
of ``No on Recall, Yes on Bustamante'' through fliers and phone
banks.
Beyond its political experience, CTA president Barbara Kerr
said, ``we have an advantage that ... there are teachers in every
community. We're everywhere.''
The state's other teachers union, the 65,000-member California
Federation of Teachers, gave $50,000 to oppose the recall, $100,000
to the AFL-CIO anti-recall campaign and $100,000 to oppose
Proposition 54, said spokesman Fred Glass.
The ``fear factor'' helps explain why there's no shortage of
volunteers this year for phone banks and precinct walking, Glass
said. ``They're not wildly enthusiastic about Davis as a person,
but they see he has tried to hold the line in times of fiscal
austerity for education spending.''
Tabuch, a member of the California Federation of Teachers,
reminds union members that they've benefited with Davis' changes in
overtime rules and his approval of the family medical leave act.
Union workers are reliable voters, she said but ``once in a
while we talk to people who express dissatisfaction with both
parties.''
When that happens, she said, she urges them to stick with the
Democrats.
``A vote for a third party only helps a Republican candidate,''
she said. ``We have to debate some of the radicals in our midst and
say, 'no, we can't lose your vote to the Greens.' This is not the
time to vote Green.''
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)