Making Presence Felt
PSC Prods Its Own In Primary Push

By HOWARD MEGDAL

Spread around the still-unfurnished Professional Staff Congress offices at 61 Broadway, members of the union called colleagues on behalf of education-friendly candidates in New York's Sept. 12 primary.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? VOTE: Professional Staff Congress members Eileen Moran and Jim Pearlstein review call lists as part of the union's get-out- the-vote program at PSC headquarters. The union targeted several contested primaries and called members within those districts.

The scene was straight out of recently re-elected PSC President Barbara Bowen's playbook. Ms. Bowen, who has frequently spoken of the need for her union to become more politically engaged, cited a flashpoint just after she took over in 2000.

Raised Profile

"When I first came to office, a well-known City Council Member said, 'I didn't know CUNY staff even had a union,''' Ms. Bowen said in a Sept. 7 interview during the PSC's get-out-the-vote operation. "We made it our vow to never let that sentence be uttered by an elected official again."

She said the member activism has led to "a sea change in how the PSC is regarded," pointing out that "the annual ritual of cutting CUNY funding has stopped."

"Many members already had political organizing experience," Ms. Bowen said. "They just hadn't connected it to the union. We've harnessed it, and allowed people to join in our shared agenda." That agenda for the Sept. 12 primary included calling on behalf of State Assemblyman Michael Benjamin of the Bronx, Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman of Manhattan, and State Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn.

A Familiar Ring

Eileen Moran, a retired Research Associate at the Michael Harrington Center in Queens, is coordinating the effort. She said the combination of mailings beforehand and the fact that members are calling other members makes the PSC program more effective than the typical cold-calling done by campaigns.

"When you start calling, you find you often know the person at the other end of the phone," Ms. Moran said. She had just gotten off the phone with a former member of her dissertation study group.

According to PSC Vice President Steve London, the operation will expand to cover key Congressional races by November.

"In general, it will be a more complete operation," he said. "We're going to be in direct contact with our members in a number of New York races which might determine who controls the House." He mentioned specifically Democratic challengers such as David Mejias against Rep. Peter King in the Third District; John Hall, taking on Rep. Sue Kelly in the 19th, and Kirsten Gillibrand's race against Rep. John Sweeney in the 20th.

The PSC is part of the AFL-CIO's Take Back the House initiative, which is backing exclusively Democratic candidates during this election cycle.

"In the past, they've endorsed some Republicans," Mr. London said. "This time, they listened to members. They had no choice - the members were shouting it, because we were demanding a change."