Are Unions wasting their money on LA County Supervisors race?
By Wally S. EdgeIt’s rare when a seat on the LA County BOS is open, but with Yvonne Burke’s retirement, it is the first open seat in 12 year. A solidly Democratic seat, heavily rooted in the Black community, though had certain Latinos shown any guts, they could have had a shot at winning. The race has boiled down to Senator Mark Ridley Thomas and Councilman (and former LAPD Chief) Bernard Parks.
Labor is throwing everything they have into Thomas’ campaign and expect to spend at least $500,000 (by any other accounting standards than the unions, it means $1 million) into an Independent Expenditure effort for him. If they are successful – which is doubtful – labor has virtually nothing to gain by their efforts, except for throwing hard earned workers’ money away.
The current BOS has 3 Dems and 2 Reps, but most votes are usually unanimous. Sometimes maverick right-winger Mike Antonovich doesn’t go along. However, even the Dems on the Board are not fans of organized labor. The harder the unions push their issues, the less money there is in the cash-strapped County for healthcare, law enforcement and other important day-to-day functions of government.
With the ultra liberal Thomas on the Board, pushing the unions’ agenda, the votes will still be 4-1. Because Thomas is also known for having a confrontational, take no prisoners mentality, he will only embarrass the other 2 liberal Dems (Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky) and the unions will not get anything that they really want.
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As the song says, "Which side are you on?"
This seems like anti-labor claptrap disguised as political analysis. Supervisor seats don't open up very often, so there is no reason for labor to sit out the race. Unless of course you don't want labor in the race in the first place, which this red herring indicates:
"The harder the unions push their issues, the less money there is in the cash-strapped County for healthcare, law enforcement and other important day-to-day functions of government."
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