I’m starting to wonder if our local unions will ever learn?
I suppose I could talk about all the missteps the Loetscher campaign made and all the dirty tricks the TenHaken camp played (nice press release about nothing Jackley, some media in town are still saying it said something) but I really don’t want to waste my time or yours.
I could also talk about the missteps in the campaign between Soehl and DeBoer, but I don’t think either camp made any. In fact, DeBoer could have easily won, if it wasn’t for Soehl’s enormous war chest from all the banksters and developers in town (I wonder if he had money left over to buy his rubber stamp) and the UNION support.
I thought Zach was sitting pretty good until I heard the Unions were doing phone banks for Soehl. While I don’t have an issue with the Unions supporting a candidate or doing phone calls, they were supporting the WRONG candidate. Besides Zach’s youth, he supports local business, innovation and didn’t take special interest money, all the things Unions should support. Instead they backed an insurance salesman (who is a former union firefighter) who took every lick of special interest money he could. Money from businesses that don’t pay good wages and certainly don’t support unions. It was also obvious from the beginning that Soehl was a Huether recruit. In his first press conference announcing his candidacy he praised Huether and wanted to continue his legacy. Huether abused and used the Unions in his first term campaign, and screwed over city employees and police in union contracts and they never learned from that experience.
We will just see how much Mr. Soehl supports the unions after he takes his oath.
UPDATE: From Kooper Caraway the SF Union president;
So, Curt was a union fire fighter so you got that correct. But he has a more involved involvement in the labor movement than that. He grew up working the concession stand in the labor temple. He actually used to be in my position, President of the SIoux Falls AFL-CIO, and prior to recieving our endorsement he signed the Union Pledge, which reads: ” I do hereby pledge my most sacred word and honor, that I will represent the working people of Sioux Falls with Integrity, I pledge that working families will be a priority in my administration, and I further pledge that I will defend the right and freedoms of working people, including the rights of workers to organize in thier workplace and the right of all workers to collectively bargain.”
We love Zach, and we will support him on any future endeavors, but Curt has a longer history of involvement with the issues of Working People and I believe that is why the delegates voted to endorse him.