Unions tell Democrats: Back Davis or suffer
Governor hopes for $10 million from labor
Robert Salladay, Chronicle Political Writer
Sacramento -- Powerful labor unions threatened retribution Tuesday against any Democrat who challenges Gov. Gray Davis on the recall ballot and prepared to spend millions of dollars for the embattled governor.
Davis, back from his meeting in Chicago with AFL-CIO leaders, is effectively building a unionized wall around his campaign to defeat the Oct. 7 recall. But he's also sending a message this week to high-profile Democrats such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante that political suicide awaits if they enter the race before the Saturday filing deadline.
Miguel Contreras, head of the 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said prominent Democrats are being asked to stay off the ballot, stand with labor and the Democratic party -- or face a stick as punishment.
"And the stick is: If you betray us, we won't forget it," said Contreras. "We're saying you have to step up and help us out, that we're Democrats and we need to stay united."
Some California Democrats, including Sen. Barbara Boxer and a few members of Congress, fear that without a prominent replacement candidate on the recall ballot, the party could lose the governor's office to a Republican.
Although all major Democrats, including Feinstein and Bustamante, have said they don't intend to run, there is intense pressure to fill the political vacuum.
Davis is turning to labor, his most loyal supporters, as his first line of defense. He has set a goal of raising $10 million from unions to fight the Oct. 7 recall, about half the amount needed to run a two-month campaign. Unions are pledging even more for independent campaigns that will include millions of pieces of mail and an election day get-out-the-vote barrage.
The Service Employees International Union, which has 530,000 California members, could spend as much as $2 million on anti-recall efforts, in part to print and mail four or five brochures to members encouraging them to vote against the recall. The Los Angeles labor unions are considering a $2.5 million to $3 million budget.
Executives with the Building & Construction Trades Council of California, which represents about 375,000 workers, voted last week to spend $100,000 against the recall, but also is organizing its members in workshops dubbed WAR -- "Workers Against Recall." They are producing 125,000 anti-recall flyers for construction job sites.
"I don't see us backing any other candidate other than Gray Davis," said Bob Balgenorth, president of the council. "We are going to be 'no' on the recall and we're not going to take a position on a candidate. What is going on here is a subversion of democracy."
With pressure from Boxer and others to find a suitable replacement candidate for the ballot, leaders with AFL-CIO unions in California sent a letter late Monday to state constitutional officers, members of the state Legislature and Congress asking them to stay off the ballot.
And, after meeting with Davis in Chicago on Tuesday, the national AFL-CIO executive council followed up with a formal resolution opposing the recall and supporting Davis. There was no public threat in the resolution, but the message was clear.
"The current recall effort is a blatant attempt to grab power and must be resisted," the AFL-CIO resolution reads. "We call on all state leaders in the Democratic Party to stand united with the governor and stay off the recall ballot."
RALLYING AROUND DAVIS
Union members say they are rallying around Davis because he reversed 16 years of Republican efforts to undermine unions. Davis signed into law paid family leave and gave farm workers the right to negotiate binding wage and benefits contracts. The Davis administration reinstated overtime rules for people working more than eight hours in a day and boosted unemployment and workers' compensation benefits.
Barring intervention by the courts, voters will be asked two questions on the October recall ballot: Should Davis be ousted? and: Who should replace him if a majority votes "yes"?
Polls show support for the recall increases dramatically if a prominent Democrat appears on the ballot as a replacement candidate.
The Republican backers of the recall, who collected more than 1.6 million signatures to force the election, say they are motivated by Davis' lack of leadership on the state budget. The fact that Davis now is getting support from unions, who have relied on Davis for five years, is not a surprise.
Phil Paule, director of the Rescue California recall committee, said his group plans to counter the union efforts by sending absentee ballots to every Republican voter in the state. He said they were organized enough to collect 1.6 million signatures and are ready for the new campaign.
"I'm not worried about the unions," Paule said. "(But) we are not going to underestimate the anti-recall side of this. We think it's going to be a vigorous campaign for the next nine weeks and we're ready for battle."
UNION MONEY KEY
Without unions, it would be difficult for a high-profile Democrat to mount an effective campaign unless he or she spent millions from a personal fortune, analysts believe. Feinstein, a millionaire, rarely dips into her considerable holdings to finance her races. Bustamante is not wealthy.
Art Pulaski, head of the California Labor Federation, said he understands the anxiety Democrats feel about puting a candidate on the ballot, but the party should not compromise on a "quick-fix" solution that would validate an illegitimate election.
"This is not a gamble," Pulaski said. "This is standing up on principle and protecting democracy. Someone has to stand up and say, we're not going to take this anymore."
Union executives acknowledge that rank-and-file members are angry about the state's $38.2 billion budget deficit. The phlegmatic Davis, too, is not popular even among many union members. But union executives said the focus needs to shift to a warning about a possible Republican takeover.
"Our members are like everybody else, they were pretty frustrated with the whole budget process," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the SEIU union. "But I think now that the recall is going to happen, people are starting to focus on it and it will become crystal clear the recall has real, long-term consequences."
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