Working Families

Our strategy in 2007 was to target some key county legislative races. By and large, it worked. Here’s the wrap up, from around the state, from east to west:

Suffolk County: Browning Wins Again - We successfully defended Kate Browning from a well-financed assault by Suffolk Republicans. Kate’s upset two years ago shifted control of the County Legislature from Republican to Democratic-WF control. The Republicans poured money into the race to take it back, but we thumped them. We knocked on over ten thousand doors, and Kate won a solid 56% – 43% victory.

Her win keeps the Democratic-WF coalition in power in Suffolk . It’s also bad news for Republican State Senator Caesar Trunzo, whose seat is a major target for the Senate Democrats in 2008 and overlaps with Browning’s. Congrats to Michele Lynch, Brian Schneck, Danny Calabro and the entire Suffolk Chapter.

Dutchess County: The Margin of Victory – Big news here. The County Legislature has been in Republican-Conservative hands for 30 years. As of this week’s swearing-in, it’s now Democratic-WF. WFP votes were the margin of victory in three races: Richard Keller-Coffey, Joel Tyner, and Pete Wassell. Congratulations go to Jen Fuentes, Jerry Maldonado, Mike Salvia, and Sandy Oxford.

Capitol District: The Siege of Troy - We took the fight to Rensselaer County , Joe Bruno’s backyard. Republican and Conservative activists have conspired to steal the WFP line there for a few years running. But they couldn’t stop the insurgent campaign of Ken Zalewski, who swept to an upset victory for Troy City Council. The WFP ran the Zalewski campaign, and his victory helped free the City Council from Republican control. Congrats go to Pat Pafundi, Jim Welch, Karen Scharff and the whole chapter.

The heavy WFP-inspired turnout for Zalewski also had shock waves beyond his district. It helped Democrats win an at-large City Council race, and the WFP was the margin of victory for Richard McNally in his race for District Attorney. Needless to say, he’s the first Democratic-WF DA in Rensselaer County in a long-time.

Onondaga County: Bitter and Sweet – The good news was Tom Buckel’s County Legislator win over the Republican-Conservative incumbent. We ran Buckel’s campaign and knocked on thousands of doors to put him over the top. Congrats to Rick Oppedisano, Mike Giarusso ,Gurt Danzy, and the Syracuse Chapter.

The victory adds to a long line of wins for the WFP in the Syracuse area. It also gives us some momentum for the 2008 Congressional rematch between Republican Congressman Jim Walsh and Dan Maffei – more on this and other Congressional races in the next Dispatch.

On a less happy note, we couldn’t save Bill Magnarelli’s failed drive to become County Executive . We did our first foray into paid radio, raising and spending more than $20,000 on an excellent radio commercial, and hope to do more of same in future races.

Monroe County : Little Race, Big Impact - The biggest upset this year may have been Dick Beebe’s surprise campaign for County Legislator . In a race the Monroe Democratic Party had all but left for dead, the WFP poured resources into Beebe’s race in the final weeks of the campaign. Beebe received 10% of the vote on our line, easily the margin of victory. Gary Bonadonna Jr. and Eric Martin led the charge in this one.

Beebe’s big win reduces the Republican majority on the County Legislature to just one seat. It could also be a bad sign for another Greece Republican, State Senator Joe Robach, whose seat overlaps with Beebe’s.

The other story from Monroe County was Patrick Christopher. When the Democrats failed to find a candidate to run for County Executive , the WFP ran one of our own. With limited resources, Christopher’s campaign was based on door-to-door voter contact and visibility in the local media. He picked up over 25,000 votes (26%), all on the WFP line – not too shabby!

Erie County: Not even Houdini… We worked like mad in Erie , but couldn’t overcome a lackluster campaign by Jim Keane in the race for County Executive . We saw 2007 as a chance to coordinate the Western New York labor movement behind a big WFP effort. In the months before election day we managed a huge field operation with targeted mailings, paid canvassers, phone banks, and labor-to-labor door knocking.

Election day wasn’t pretty for Keane, but in the suburbs Keane did best in our targeted areas, the working-class towns of Cheektowaga and Tonawanda .

We proved a united labor coalition can make a big difference in Erie County politics, and we think we’ll be making a big splash together in the years to come. A shout out to Sam Williams, Dick Lipsitz Jr., Patty Divinney, Courtney Brunelle, Wayne Beiger, Mike Hoffert, and the entire Area Labor Federation.