Public Employee Press

Political Action 2005
Primary Day VICTORIES

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Five candidates endorsed by District Council 37 won the first leg of their races to public office on Primary Day, Sept. 13. Each got a boost from DC 37 volunteers clad in navy T-shirts and organized by the union’s Political Action Dept.

The activists campaigned around the city, urging people to vote, and distributed thousands of palm cards at subway and bus stops, in shopping malls and on street corners.

DC 37’s winners included Sylvia Ash, who won the primary for Brooklyn Civil Court Judge with 43 percent of the vote. She beat two opponents in a countywide race. Ash was formerly a supervising attorney in DC 37’s legal service for members and chief counsel of the union’s immigration program.

City Council winners include Darlene Mealy, a Transportation Authority clerical administrative employee. She won the city’s most crowded City Council primary, toppling the 30-year Boyland dynasty by beating out patriarch William F. Boyland Sr., a former member of the State Assembly, whose daughter Tracy currently holds the Council seat that represents District 41 in Ocean Hill, Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Repeal campaign finance laws
Additional DC 37-backed primary winners were James “Jimmy” Vacca of District 13 in the Bronx; Manhattan lawyer Rosie Mendez of District 2 on the Lower East Side, the East Village and Murray Hill; and Daniel Garodnick of District 4, representing a swath from Stuyvesant Town to the Upper East Side. As PEP went to press, a vote recount was underway for DC 37-endorsed candidate Felipe Luciano of District 9, East Harlem, Mott Haven, Port Morris and part of the Upper West Side.

In most cases, Democratic Primary Day victors go on to win in the general election, but Garodnick and Vacca will have competitive Republican challengers in November’s vote.

Displeased by City Council’s reluctance to repeal the Campaign Finance reform law, which severely restricts union political contributions, DC 37 withheld endorsements, financial and political support from City Council incumbents in the primary and general elections.

“The union backed seven challengers in open seats and will continue to withhold contributions and endorsements until the current members of City Council revisit the campaign finance reform law and reinstate labor’s autonomy and ability to fully participate in the political process,” said DC 37 Political Director Wanda Williams.

Labor unions want the City Council to repeal recent changes in campaign finance rules that were implemented at the request of the Campaign Finance Board.

Under the new law, DC 37, its 56 autonomous locals and its parent union, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, would be considered a single source of donations, sharply constricting the amount of money that could be contributed to a political campaign.

The Democratic mayoral primary was not an issue for DC 37 since the union endorsed Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg for re-election in November and there was no Republican primary.

Tuesday’s volunteers met an unusually low voter turnout: Just 7 percent of eligible Democrats voted, which some political experts attribute to a growing number of New York Democrats who will probably vote for Bloomberg in the fall.

DC 37 will again endorse William Thompson for City Comptroller in the November election; there was no primary for this seat. A complete list of candidates endorsed by DC 37 appears on page 24.