Election Day 2012: Moments from the Metro-Area GOTV Effort
Tuesday, November 6, 2012(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Hundreds –
perhaps
thousands – of labor activists hit the doors, polls and phones throughout the
metro Washington area yesterday to get out the working family vote for
labor-endorsed candidates and ballot initiatives. Union City’s Chris Garlock
and Julia Kann caught up with some of the
volunteers over
the course of a long Election Day...
At
7am on
Election Day Stephen Frum (right),
a nurse in Washington Hospital Center’s burn unit and a member of National
Nurses United, is bundled up with a scarf and gloves while sporting his NNU red
scrubs. “This election is so important, not just because of the top of the
ticket, but because of legislation we’re working on in the District to
increase
nurse ratios for patient safety,” Frum says, as he passes out campaign
literature
to voters at DC Precinct 138 in the Capital Memorial Adventist Church in
Northwest DC.
“I’ve
been
retired for 15 years but I always come out to help during elections,” Thomas
Peoples (left)
says as voters line up at 8am outside the Precinct 57 in Northwest DC. A member
of Laborer’s Local 657, Peoples says turnout has been good; “A lot of
people
are coming out to vote today. [Pollwatching] is easy, compared to having to
work on a construction site in the numbing cold.”
“I
really
hope Question 7 (the pro-gaming referendum in Maryland) passes,” Cement
Masons
Local 891 Apprenticeship Director Jim Miller (right)
says, as he and Local 891 member Carlos Jimenez distribute
literature at DC Precinct 85 in Northeast Washington at 9am. “That’s a lot
of
jobs at stake. We used to have 65 apprentices and are down to two dozen
now.”
Down
in Southeast,
outside Precinct 126 at WB Patterson Elementary, the sun has warmed things up
by 10am, and AFSCME Council 20 political chair Andre Lee is taking off his
jacket, the better to showcase his AFSCME green campaign t-shirt. Along with
retired member Gwen Jones and volunteer Anthony Hood, Lee holds court at the
busy corner, with every voter stopping to chat with him about AFSCME’s
endorsements and about the prospects for President Obama’s re-election.
“Hey
Trayon!” Lee hollers at a passing car and moments later School Board
candidate
Trayon “Tray” White comes over to join the festivities, glad-handing
volunteers
and voters alike. “We’ve got over 100 volunteers covering Wards 7 and 8,”
says
Lee, “and we’ll be back out here for the special At-Large election in
March.”
The
line
to vote at the Friendship Heights Village Center in Chevy Chase stretches down
the block by noon, with volunteers from Jews United for Justice urging votes
for Maryland question 6 and 4 on marriage equality and in-state tuition for
immigrant youth or the “Maryland Dream Act.” Most voters were familiar and
supportive of the same-sex marriage referenda, says JUFJ Organizer Sarah
Brammer-Shlay. “A lot aren’t as aware of the Dream Act but once we explain
it
they seem supportive.”
June
Fitzmeyer (left),
a Rockville, MD librarian and UFCW 1994 member, had already taken
two
weeks of leave
earlier this fall to do labor GOTV in Ohio but she’s back out again at midday
at the Neelsville Middle School in Germantown, MD, urging voters “Support our
police officers, vote against Question B.” “It’s just so outrageous,”
Fitzmeyer
said, “the amount of money that [Montgomery County Executive Ike] Leggett has
put into trying to ram this anti-collective bargaining law through. Especially
when they’ve said they don’t have any money to give us raises for the last
five
years.” Fitzmeyer was especially shocked “when they put up pro-Question B
signs
in front of the county libraries, which are supposed to be non-partisan
places.”
Prince
George’s County school workers “have had to do more with less,” ACE-AFSCME
Local 2250 president Shirley Adams
(left, in green) says,
as she and Association of Supervisory and Administrative School Personnel
(ASASP) Executive Director (and Metro Council Board Member) Doris Reed
(right, in grey) work
the polls in mid-afternoon at Woodmore Elementary School in Mitchellville, MD.
“It’s getting to the point where if they cut any more, the whole system
will
come apart.” Adams sited staffing shortages across the Prince George’s
County
school system, “from bus drivers and mechanics to nursing and food service
staff, which can be devastating, as that may be the only meal some of these
kids get all day.” Getting union members involved in the political process,
says Adams, “is key to letting the public know what’s going on; what’s
being
done – and not done – with their tax dollars.”
Retired
music teacher John Tatum (right)
does double-duty at the Kenilworth Elementary School polls in
Bowie, MD. As the sun begins to set Tatum directs voters on where to park and
then hands out literature on their way in to vote.
“Ten
thousand contacts today alone,” an exhilarated – and clearly exhausted –
NoVA
Labor President Dan Duncan says, as darkness falls and canvassers
return
from getting out the labor vote in Northern Virginia. Volunteers continue to
call labor voters as the minutes to the 7pm poll closing continue to tick away.
“Overall, we’ve probably made 40-45,000 contacts since we started in
August,”
Duncan says, as he tidies up the detritus of donuts and pizza devoured by more
than 250 volunteers over the course of the day. “The initial enthusiasm might
not have been as high as in 2008, but these last two weeks have been nothing
short of phenomenal. And it wasn’t just Virginia labor volunteers,” Duncan
says, “We had a ton of folks from across the river in DC and in Maryland.
There’s no way we could have done this without all that help and we can’t
thank
everyone enough.”
As
metro-area activists gather at the AFL-CIO at the end of a long Election Day,
cheering the incoming results that shortly after 11p show the re-election of
President Obama, Metro Council President Jos Williams echoes Duncan, saying
“solidarity doesn’t stop at the water’s edge and every single metro-area
activist, volunteer, member and leader who walked, who phoned, who helped get
out the labor vote, owns a piece of what we’ve accomplished together today.
They should be proud of their work; I know I am.”
For
more photos of area labor GOTV – including shots from UFCW 400’s Tony
Perez,
IUOE 99’s Eamon Clifford and Metro Council Assistant Legislative
Legislative/Political Coordinator Alya Solomon – check out the Metro
Council’s Election Day Facebook album.