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.