Good news from Illinois, where Gov. Pat Quinn won a full four-year term. Teamsters Joint Council 25 was the first union to endorse Quinn, and Cook County Teamsters busted their butts to elect him. Said John Coli, JC25 president:
Teamsters in Chicago and across Illinois put their boots to the ground to help elect a leader who has spent his career protecting working families and fighting for labor.
We also had good news from Washington, where Sen. Patty Murray narrowly defeated Dino Rossi for a fourth term. Murray has worked closely with the Teamsters in Congress on important transportation issues.
California Sen. Barbara Boxer, an invaluable friend of the Teamsters, defeated a former CEO who sent thousands of jobs overseas and collected millions for her efforts. Rome Alois, Joint Council 7 president in San Francisco, said the Teamsters are proud to return her to Washington.
Jerry Brown's defeat of Google billionairess Meg Whitman was especially sweet for Randy Cammack, president of Joint Council 5 in Covina. As attorney general, Brown fought against trucking company abuses of the drivers at the Port of L.A./Long Beach.
It's taken a few days to sink in, but Jim Oberstar's loss in Minnesota is an especially bitter pill. Oberstar will be replaced as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by Florida Rep. John Mica, no friend to labor. By any stretch of the imagination. Mica has voted against the Teamsters on important issues 97 percent of the time.
Over at firedoglake, David Dayen had a good analysis of the state attorney general races. State AGs have been the ones who took on FedEx and other bad actors for misclassifying workers. They are also running the foreclosure fraud investigation, so who won and who lost takes on added importance.
Tom Miller, the Iowa AG who was in charge of the 50-state foreclosure fraud investigation, won re-election. Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley, who sued FedEx for misclassification, also won.
Sadly, Ohio AG Richard Cordray lost. He had cracked down on employee misclassification and was one of the eight who investigated FedEx for the practice.
