California's Tauscher Elected to House

On Labor Day she was down by 20 points in the polls, and up to Election Day publications like the Wall Street Journal were saying she wouldn't win. But Ellen Tauscher (D) managed to beat East Bay, Calif., two-termer Bill Baker (R) in her race for the House seat. She succeeded with lots of labor -- and AFSCME -- help.

Under the leadership of Local 2700 Vice Pres. Pam Aguilar, the Contra Costa Central Labor Council fielded a unified effort. "It's been many years since they did a political program in my central labor council," she said. "It brought a lot of labor people together and really showed us what we could do. It was very exciting, but winning was even better."

Their Labor to Neighbor program was highly successful. When it was first tried in early September, a disappointing five union members showed up to visit the homes of fellow union members and discuss the campaign. Just seven weeks later, there were 130 volunteers.

"The volunteers had a good time talking to their union sisters and brothers," said Aguilar. "They came back saying, 'We connected on the issues. I could talk about the prevailing wage, about health care benefits.'"