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epic Election Information and Endorsements
epic Endorsement Policy
"We reward our friends and punish our enemies."
Samuel Gompers, one of the founders of the
American Federation of Labor, to Union voters.
Just as Samuel Gompers counseled at the turn of the century, epic looks at endorsements with an eye to keep Legislators in office that support us and our issues, and oppose those who work against us. If a Legislator has supported us, we support them in the next election, regardless if we think there is a "better" friend running against them. They have performed the way we asked them, and have earned our support for the next election. When we have identified our "friends" amongst incumbents, we go no further in that race. We don't ask them to complete questionnaires, because an actual voting record is a better indicator of what they will do in the future than the promises made in a questionnaire. In determining who our "friends" are, we only look at issues that are relevant to us as public employees and working people in general. Pensions, healthcare, bargaining rights, civil service protections, tenure, privatization, approval of collective bargaining agreements, and other issues directly affecting your paycheck, benefits and rights. We do not consider issues that are not relevant to your paycheck, like abortion, gun control, environmental issues and other issues, unless they directly impact your rights on the job.
Once epic has considered all the incumbents running for reelection, we then prepare a questionnaire to determine the position of candidates on our issues. We then send it to all candidates in those races. We also meet with the candidates to determine where they are on issues, what kind of a candidate they will be, what their campaign will look like, and how viable a candidate they are. Often times this is done in conjunction with the local Central Labor Council, but may also include interviews with local epic committees or in informal chats. Once this information is gathered, the information is shared with the remainder of the epic Board and decisions are made on whether to make an endorsement in certain races, and who to endorse. The epic Board then decides how to allocate our scarce financial resources to support these epic-endorsed candidates, and how best to deploy our volunteers. We can't hope to compete with the financial resources available to the oil companies and business community, so our best resource is the people power we can provide a candidate to help them get elected. If we can provide volunteers to walk a district with a candidate, or man phone banks, look up phone numbers, put up signs, bake cookies for a fundraiser, or any of the multitude of volunteer opportunities that exist in a campaign, we can compete with big business.
2005 and 2006 Legislative Votes on Some Issues Important to epic
Legends for viewing endorsements
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Friends of PERS & TRS. They voted and worked with us to save our traditional pension plan. |
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Enemies of PERS & TRS. They voted to take away our traditional retirement plan, and replace it with a savings account. |
| Questionnaire | Answers to APEA/AFT Questionaire |
| Endorsed Candidate |