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For Greuel And Garcetti, It Gets Tricky Kissing Labor’s Ring

Edward Loera |
March 11, 2013 | 3:14 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

(Eric Garcetti, Creative Commons
(Eric Garcetti, Creative Commons
This article is part of an ongoing partnership with L.A. Currents.

With the runoff election for Los Angeles city mayor in full swing, both Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are in the process of recalibrating their campaign messages. It is a delicate process. And nowhere is this more evident than in their respective courtships of the influential labor unions in Los Angeles.

During the primary, Greuel won a number of key endorsements from some of the city’s most powerful labor unions. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 18, which represents the city’s Department of Water and Power, provided Greuel’s campaign with nearly $1.7 million. Greuel received hundreds of thousands of dollars more from the police union. This support provided Greuel with an impressive war chest to draw upon but also opened her up to attacks from the other candidates, who argued she would be compromised when negotiating with these unions if elected.

The support Greuel obtained from these unions has seemingly put Garcetti’s campaign in a tricky spot. Despite having captured the endorsement of several high-profile labor unions — most notably the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and the Longshoremen — Garcetti attacked Greuel repeatedly for some of the endorsements she received. 

“It’s a choice between a mayor’s office that is bought and paid for by the power brokers at the [Department of Water and Power] union,” Garcetti told supporters at the Avalon in Hollywood in during his election night speech. His election night speech Garcetti strategist Bill Carrick piled on, saying that Greuel’s labor union support was “a lot of baggage for her to carry into the runoff.”

Moving from a political primary to a runoff can be a tricky task for any politician; just ask Mitt Romney. During his presidential run, the former Massachusetts governor was never able to quell the controversy kicked up by his aide’s ill-advised “Etch-A-Sketch” characterization. But unlike national elections, when candidates typically appeal to their party’s base during the primary and then tack to the center in the general election, local elections can be far more nuanced. When all is said and done in the current mayoral race, Garcetti’s decision to open a front against the Department of Water and Power’s super-PAC contributions to Greuel may prove to be the pivotal moment in the runoff. 

A day after the election, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) chapters in Los Angeles — SEIU Local 721, which represents 10,000 city employees, and SEIU United Long-Term Care Workers — publically endorsed Greuel. SEIU 721 President Bob Schoonover went even further, publically criticizing Garcetti’s record as as a City Council member. “[He] doesn’t have the answers,” said Schoonover in a Daily News report

And earlier this week, after months of lobbying from both campaigns, the L.A. County Federation of Labor, which represents 600,000 area workers, came out in support of Greuel. 

According to Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior fellow at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, the impact this ultimately has on Garcetti’s campaign will depend on how his campaign characterizes the unions’ influence. “They may argue that the lion’s share of funding for Greuel during the primary came from unions whereas Garcetti got support from all over the map. They can say to voters that they won’t know how harmful it may be to have a candidate who’s mostly funded by labor unions,” said Jeffe.

At the center of this debate over union support are the ballooning costs of the city’s pension system. Last fall, City Council members, including Garcetti, raised the retirement age. They also reduced pension benefits for newly hired city employees. Those changes were challenged by a number of unions.

Jeffe believes that the issue of pension reform may become a defining issue for this runoff election. If this happens, she said: “Garcetti will stand on more solid ground because he can talk about what he has done with pension reform in the city, and can say that his endorsements show that unions don’t own him. He can say that the unions financed Wendy Greuel, and this creates a real obligation for her. The question is whether Garcetti will use it.”

Shannon Murphy, a spokesperson for the Greuel campaign, said Garcetti is trying to have his cake and eat it too. “Garcetti has the backing of several unions. It is hypocritical of him to criticize working men and women represented by these unions, while at the same time vying for the same endorsement. He can’t keep his word,” she said.

Greuel’s campaign says that her labor union endorsements would not compromise her position on pension reform were she to become mayor. “Wendy understands that pension reform is critical to balancing the budget. She would bring all the parties to table,” said Greuel’s spokeswoman.

Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman declined to comment and referred this reporter to a written statement issued by the campaign on Wednesday. “I’m proud to have such strong support from labor organizations and their individual members,” Garcetti said in the statement. “So many labor organizations and members are supporting me because of my proven results creating jobs, strengthening our middle class, and solving problems for L.A. residents. I will always stand up for working men and women as L.A.’s next mayor.”

In remarks made to the L.A. County Federation of Labor earlier this week, Garcetti was put on the defensive, when he was asked if he equates union support with the term “special interests.” “The term special interests . . . is not something that I’ve used to attack labor. In fact, as we speak right now I’m doing more to promote labor . . . on issues that you care about than anybody else in this race. It’s not just words. It’s actions. You can, in a campaign, paint whatever picture you want, but the evidence runs against that.”

L.A. Currents contributed to the editing of this piece. Reach Staff Reporter Edward Loera here and follow him on Twitter here.



 

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