| October/November 2001 IBEW Journal
"In both medium and message, we have
to get as close to the job as possible. The best medium is
the fellow worker, next is the job steward and so on up the
line," Hill said. "The best message is tied tightly
to our well-being as union members. Construction members get
the message on Davis-Bacon, utility members are current on
deregulation, and our manufacturing members dont need us
to define NAFTA."
In addition to the record-breaking PAC contributions, Secretary-Treasurer
OConnor reported that the IBEW also broke records in the
number of political activists involved in the national IBEW
communications network. "In one year, our activist list
grew from 892 to 1,478," OConnor said. "And thats
the forerunner of a system we can make even more efficient
in next years elections and beyond."
Noted election analyst Charles Cook told the delegates that
history would predict Democratic gains in the 2002 elections
off "the normal off-year punishing of the party that
won the White House." He said redistricting since the
2000 census has had the effect of a Republican gain of two
to three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, meaning
Democrats will have to gain a net of about 10 seats to regain
House control for the first time since 1994. Democrats could
gain dramatically in governorships next year.
The two parties are as close to equal in strength as they
have ever been, Cook said, noting that neither party got a
majority of the vote in the past three congressional races.
"And the votes of the people in this room would have
decided the presidential election in Florida last year."
"The suburban vote is changing from solid Republican
because the suburbs are changing," Cook said. "They
are no longer lily white and the close-in suburbanites bring
their big city voting habits with them." Cook noted that
Bush won West Virginia and Gore carried the Pennsylvania counties
of Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery. "In any previous presidential
election, a candidate could do that only if he were winning
a national landslide."
Cook said the resurgence of union political action is proven
by the attempts of President Bush to reach out to individual
unions for support. But Senator Boxer told the gathering that
Bush attempts to divide unions on environmental issues wont
work. "Union workers are just as determined to preserve
the planet and have clean air to breathe as anyone else,"
Senator Boxer said to sustained applause.
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