Hurdles Along the Last Lap
As we count down to Election Day, only one of our three candidates remains in the race. Fourth in a series.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
Janice Nelson, MD, is psyched! In August, the California con-gressional candidate took part in the daily caucuses AFSCME held at the Democratic National Convention; the energy she found there reinvigorated her.
Now, locked in an uphill battle, Nelson is running against David Dreier (R-Calif.), powerful chairman of the House Rules Committee, who has a 4 percent AFSCME voting record. Although she will never match his campaign war chest, she hopes to beat him "on the ground" — that is, with organization and the help of dedicated volunteers. "I have a good crew out there that serve as my eyes and ears," she says.
The Democratic convention gave Nelson a chance to network with California's Democratic leadership. In succeeding weeks, she joined in the effort to establish a local coordinated campaign headquarters.
Working with the entire Democratic ticket was particularly important. "My district has just crossed over the line — it has a Democratic majority," says Nelson. "It had a 2 percent Republican majority when I ran before." Her focus is therefore on getting out the Democratic vote, and she feels that the strong slate headed by Vice President Gore and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will help accomplish that.
The results of a recent poll, Nelson adds, "show that our issues play well with the voters." Although her opponent currently maintains a lead, the poll found that 34 percent of the voters were undecided. An additional finding: His ultra-conservative views are unpopular with the mainstream.
Poll respondents saw Nelson's positions on education, health care, Medicare, the environment and privacy as convincing reasons to support her. Her opponent's positions and voting record on education, health care and business gave three-quarters of the undecided voters doubts about him.
Now it's up to Nelson to increase name recognition and organize a team of "ground" troops who will help spread her message and turn out the votes on Nov 7.
RAINY TUESDAY. Sept. 5 was a rainy day for voters — and candidates — in Tallahassee. Carrie Mitchell-Long spent the day visiting polls and working to get her supporters to vote. But it wasn't enough. She lost in the five-way primary for a Florida legislative seat.
Mitchell-Long is proud of her efforts. "I ran a clean campaign," she says. "You learn from your experiences." Those lessons will make her a better-prepared candidate the next time she runs for office.
And yes, there will be a next time. Mitchell-Long can hardly wait.
"I have no regrets," says the Local 3343 (Council 79) president. "We did a good job."
OUT OF THE RUNNING. Local 2848 (Council 79) Pres. John Leshuk withdrew from his campaign for the Florida legislature after he was notified that he would lose his job if he qualified. He is still angry, particularly because Florida officials violated their own rules by grossly delaying their response to his statement that he planned to run. Their reply, an official denial, took almost a year — during which he had worked to build his political base. Throughout that time, state officials told him repeatedly that there were no problems. He is pursuing legal action.
His withdrawal "made my supporters angry and disgusted," Leshuk readily admits. "It was humiliating that I had to drop out." However, he didn't let things end there. He looked over the other candidates and decided to support Bobby Hart, a teacher with a strong union background and a solid commitment to workers' rights. "I went out campaigning for Bobby, and he won. We'll get a good representative from our area."
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