Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 5, 1990 TAG: 9007050135
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The group has identified 5,000 union members who are potential candidates, according to Daniel G. LeBlanc, secretary-treasurer of the 200,000-member labor organization, and Del. Jackie Stump, an independent from Grundy.
These include members of boards of supervisors, gubernatorial commissions and 40 members of the Democratic Party's state central committee.
LeBlanc and Stump spoke at an Independence Day news conference at the state Capitol.
Stump, a leader in the coal miners' strike against Pittston Coal Co. last year in Southwest Virginia, ran a write-in campaign as an independent and defeated a longtime Democratic incumbent, Donald G. McGlothlin.
Stump's victory and the victory of trade unionists in an Alabama election are signs that a pro-worker message has broad appeal, LeBlanc said.
The union officials said the AFL-CIO will endorse candidates who support a "Workers' Bill of Rights," which calls for collective bargaining for public employees, affordable health care and a repeal of the state's right-to-work law.
LeBlanc said changes that allow voters to be registered outside the locality in which they reside and legislative redistricting will mean that "ordinary citizens" have a better chance of getting elected. The 1991 Assembly will redistrict the state on the basis of the 1990 census.
He said that 108 of the 140 members of the Assembly are lawyers or businessmen.
The union is studying incumbents' voting records to determine whether labor should support them.
He declined to identify any incumbents under AFL-CIO scrutiny but said labor is looking closely at members of the Assembly's Labor and Commerce committees.
"The people who build our infrastructure work in retail, in coal mines and in factories [and] ought to have representation," LeBlanc said.
He also cited the failure of both major political parties to field competitive candidates in recent elections. Almost half the 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates ran unopposed last year.
by CNB