Tonight I'm still going through the potpourri of news items and finding a few interesting tidbits here and there.
I've been interested in the AFL-CIO split since the friction started earlier this year. The renegade "Change To Win Coalition" took a fourth scalp from the beleaguered AFL-CIO this week when UNITE HERE, an umbrella of unions in the apparel and hospitality industries, decided to formally leave the AFL-CIO. The tally now stands at 8 million for the AFL-CIO, with the yet unnamed labor insurgency now up to 5 million workers; split between the Teamsters, SEIU (service employees), UFCW (grocery/retail workers), UNITE HERE, and a few smaller unions. This labor movement will adopt a name on September 27, when they meet in St. Louis for their first convention.
To me, the interesting thing is whether these unions will cut back on political spending and actually spend more money on their stated goal of organizing workers. The rift in the labor movement started for that reason, as the CTWC unions complained about the amount of political contributions made by the AFL-CIO at the expense of attempting to grow their unions. With the percentage of unionized labor at a historic low, these CTWC unions know that their spigot of coerced union dues is being shut off by a lack of workers to pay those dues. I'm sure many workers in the unions are paying dues to support politicians they do not agree with. In the 2004 election, Bush held his own in union households despite the heavy public support by the unionistas for John Kerry. In the privacy of the voting booth, Bush garnered a lot of closet union votes.
Speaking of elections, I found a Democrat I could vote for (but probably won't have to.) William Donald Schaefer is hinting at running again for his state comptroller post. The outspoken octogenarian may only have a primary opponent, though. It's hinted that the GOP may not even run anyone against him.
If anything, I have to give the guy credit for having a pair and not being politically correct. He ranted about a McDonald's worker's poor command of English, irritating immigant advocates. He's also been known to aggressively question why state contract bids weren't lower. Hey, I'm for that.
But the best one was his questioning when the state's Minority Business Enterprise program would end. And it's because there's a fair and valid question.
At what point do we say, ok, the field is now level? I've been advocating the sunsetting of set-asides and similar programs for a long time. Affirmative action has become a crutch of quotas for the chosen few. I don't doubt that it was a useful tool in getting minorities into the mainstream of business 30 years ago, but now it's time for the free market to resume and give all, regardless of race and gender, an equal chance at success. It's only in Orwell novels that some should be more equal than others.
This race issue provides me a nice segue into my final chapter for tonight. My old hometown's mayoral primary was on Tuesday. Now, if there was EVER a match between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, this is it. (Note to readers: this may be the ONE time I agree with this columnist.)
In the blue corner: The current mayor, "Sleepy" Jack Ford, who finished second in the primary. He's best known for sleeping on the job in the Ohio Legislature when he was a member of the Ohio House. He's also been asleep at the wheel in Toledo for the last four years as growth and progress has stagnated. (Obviously, since I'm sitting here thanks to a lack of business in the northwest Ohio area for architects.) However, Ford, who is black, got enough of "his people" to turn out to guarantee him a spot in the November election. Higher than normal turnout in the black wards is credited for his second place finish over a charging Keith Wilkowski, a onetime county commissioner and fellow Democrat.
In the purple corner: This corner was red when it was convenient to him 3 decades ago in his bids for Congress, but now the nominally independent former two-term mayor Carty Finkbeiner is in the November mayoral election. He's on his third political comeback now after being term-limited out of office in 2001. Carty (no last name necessary in Toledo, he's a household name) is best known for one thing: he's the guy who seriously suggested moving deaf people out to the airport. Yes, the Trivial Pursuit question's answer is Carty Finkbeiner.
I have met this man on several occasions and he's come across to me as phony as a $3 bill. People, I voted for a guy barely to the right of communist to keep Carty out of the mayor's office in 1993.
The sad thing about the Toledo election is that the GOP candidate, city councilman Rob Ludeman, finished a dismal fourth with only about 12% of the vote. A lot of his GOP votes went to Carty, which shows what's wrong with the city of Toledo in a nutshell. Ludeman didn't win any wards in his council district - all went to Carty.
So I'm glad I don't live in Toledo anymore. There's very few races I don't cast a vote on, but this would be one of them. Come to think of it, I did vote in 2004. When I was downsized out of my job, I voted with my feet and came here. It's not surprising that I've had a lot of company in the last two decades as these choices show what the Democrat machine has done to an otherwise-fine city.
