In Albany Race, Labor May Vote Incumbent

By RICHARD STEIER

For some union officials, Joe Bruno's stepping down as State Senate Majority Leader two weeks ago simplifies decisions about their strategy for the November elections, when Democratic prospects to take control of the Legislature's upper house seem particularly strong.

As one of them, who insisted that neither he nor his organization be identified, put it, "Who's gonna do more for this union, Dean Skelos or Malcolm Smith?"

Mr. Skelos may have been Mr. Bruno's hand-picked successor, but he is not as popular and it is not clear that the Nassau County Republican will be as friendly to labor as his upstate counterpart. Mr. Smith, on the other hand, is from Queens and has established his willingness to help the municipal unions.

Dems Riding a Wave

The primary concern for union officials when they buck incumbents is the consequences if the gamble goes awry. For the moment, however, momentum seems to heavily favor Democrats statewide. Besides having picked up a couple of Senate seats in special elections during the past two years, Democrats are facing a dispirited Republican Party, whose problems are symbolized by its difficulty in finding a credible candidate to run for the Congressional seat being vacated by Vito Fossella in a Staten Island district that has gone GOP ever since Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980. It seems no coincidence that in that race the State AFL-CIO, which traditionally holds off on endorsements until its convention in August, last week endorsed the leading Democratic contender, City Councilman Michael McMahon.

PRAGMATISTS VS. PROGRESSIVES: State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes (left) says labor's position in the battle for control of the State Senate should pivot not on party affiliation but on which incumbents have helped the unions, but Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor argues that swinging control to the Democrats is far more likely to produce significant changes that benefit employees.

But State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes said July 2 that his organization will not be joining an all-out Democratic push in the battle for control of the State Senate, and indications are that several prominent municipal union leaders are not making the leap either until they've had a chance to deal with Mr. Skelos as Majority Leader.

It is not clear whether they're hoping he will be just as amenable to their interests - Newsday noted that he has long relationships with the police unions here and in his home county, as well as with court employees, state correction officers and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association - or whether they aren't convinced that a Democratic pick-up of two Senate seats that would be enough to swing control of that body is a sure thing.

The Newsday piece on the transition of power noted that Civil Service Employees Association President Danny Donohue - who represents 265,000 employees statewide - had issued a statement that Senator Skelos "has earned our confidence and respect." The article also pointed out that if all three state leaders had their political bases in New York City, that might not be so good for a union like CSEA whose members are based primarily upstate.

Given that the Legislature is adjourned for the year and Mr. Skelos may not do any union-linked business if it meets in special session prior to Election Day, big unions like the United Federation of Teachers and District Council 37 that aren't leaning strongly to rolling the dice on a Democratic takeover of the Senate may continue to do business as usual.

Mr. Hughes made clear in a phone interview that the transition from Mr. Bruno to Mr. Skelos in the Senate will not influence how his organization - which has 2.5-million public- and private-sector workers under its banner - does its political business.

'We'll Support Who Supported Us'

Noting that the state federation has always based its endorsements on where candidates have stood on issues of importance to labor, Mr. Hughes said, "I don't see a lot of changes - I don't see us abandoning incumbents based on partisan considerations. If they have supported us, we'll support them."

Which means that the man who is in charge of Senate Republicans is secondary to how those Republicans have voted on bills of interest to the unions (Mr. Skelos himself, Newsday noted, has a 95-percent rating from the State AFL-CIO).

In opting for political pragmatism, Mr. Hughes is following a tradition begun by former municipal union leaders like Victor Gotbaum of District Council 37 and Barry Feinstein of Teamsters Local 237, whose memberships were less-mixed ideologically than the State AFL-CIO but nonetheless took advantage of Republicans' willingness to back union bills in return for political support.

There are other labor officials who question, however, whether the short-term legislative gains produced by these alliances are worth what the unions give up in terms of their members' long-term interests. Among them is Bill Henning, a vice president of Local 1180 of the Communications Workers of America. And he doesn't believe the question necessarily pivots on Republicans vs. Democrats, but rather on who holds the power and the risks in going against them if they subsequently are re-elected.

"I think for a long time the labor movement has been comfortable with the incumbent factor," Mr. Henning said, an equation under which you back an office-holder until he or she is defeated, then seek to make a deal with the person who unseated them.

While he understands Mr. Hughes's position, Mr. Henning said, he questions its analytical foundation. "A decent record is always defined as how [legislators] vote on bills," he explained, "but the key issue is whether they let bills come to the floor for a vote."

Not Always Predictable

Yet even there, legislators are sometimes difficult to typecast. During Mario Cuomo's tenure as Governor, Mr. Gotbaum and Mr. Feinstein enjoyed more consistently fruitful relationships with the Republican Majority Leader, Warren Anderson than with the Democrat they had helped elect.

One of Mr. Bruno's first steps in his evolution from conservative Republican to someone more moderate was supporting gay-rights legislation more than a decade ago; at the City Council level on the same issue, former Speaker Peter Vallone Sr. - on many issues a right-of-center Democrat - in 1986 ended the practice of his predecessor, fellow Democrat Tom Cuite, of bottling up gay rights legislation and let his more-liberal colleagues know they would suffer no political reprisals if they voted for it.

And while the then-Republican Mayor Bloomberg two years ago made a contract deal with DC 37 to give its mostly minority members the same right to live in surrounding counties outside the five boroughs as is enjoyed by uniformed workers, the initiative has been blocked by Democrats in the City Council who fear the eased residency restriction could make it tougher for their own minority constituents to get city jobs.

Mr. Henning acknowledged this political reality. He noted that at times having power in Albany split between the two parties had worked to the unions' advantage, just as "when Mario Cuomo was Governor he was perfectly comfortable having a Republican-dominated Senate, because it gave him somebody to blame" if he didn't produce for the unions.

Given that history, Mr. Henning said, even if Democrats can take control of the Senate, "I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to do what we need to do."

'Dems Would Feel Pressure'

On the other hand, he added, "If they get the majority, I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on the Democrats to deliver."

And the difference between the two parties' impact on working people's lives, Mr. Henning said, if not always evident on labor legislation, can be seen in how the Senate under Mr. Bruno made the city's housing laws less-palatable for tenants.

"Tenants have not fared well at all under the Republican majority in the Senate," he said. "Affordable housing is a big deal for many of our members. And more and more there are unions that are willing to step up and say the Republicans have ill-served us."

One former Bloomberg administration official said a Democratic State Senate might prove fertile ground for changes in the Taylor Law penalties that the unions have sought for years, and with a stepped-up intensity since the 2005 transit strike.

But Mr. Hughes countered that the Senate had not been the roadblock to such changes, pointing out, "The Governor has to support a change. We've had lots of Taylor Law bills vetoed by Pataki and Spitzer."

That wasn't a surprise in the case of Mr. Pataki, who balanced generosity that produced good contracts for private-sector hospital workers and city Teachers in 2002 to aid his bid for a third term with a hard-line stand against Transport Workers Union Local 100 even after its 2005 strike was settled.

Onus on Paterson to Say No?

Mr. Spitzer, on the other hand, had decried the state of labor-management relations in the city transit system, and so he would have seemed more sympathetic to union arguments that the Taylor Law was unduly punitive to labor while not penalizing management in cases where its tactics produced strikes that could have been avoided.

But as Public Employment Relations Board Chairman Jerome Lefkowitz recently noted, legislators concern themselves with getting re-elected while Governors have a larger obligation to their states and must take care to strike a balance between labor and management. To some extent, Mr. Spitzer filled that role; if the Senate goes Democratic, Governor Paterson could face the task of being the man who tells the unions "no" at times when his fellow Democrats are all shouting "yes." However much his sympathies and political support may rest with labor, being too indulgent could lead to his being caricatured by newspaper editorialists unless Mr. Paterson is sometimes willing to play the bad guy by exercising his veto power.

The possibility of that happening shouldn't matter to union members, Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor maintained. Although the WFP, which has a heavy labor presence and looks to keep the Democratic Party steering a progressive rather than a pragmatic course, usually works well with the State AFL-CIO, it is breaking ranks in the November elections.

'Committed to Flipping Control'

A July 2 e-mail from the party's leaders credited Mr. Bruno and the Republican majority as having "sometimes passed important legislation: raising the minimum wage, enacting Child Health Plus, Workers' Compensation reform, among others.

"But more often," it continued, "they were an obstacle to reforms [in the area of] fair taxes, paid family leave, and public financing of elections."

"We are organizationally committed to flipping control," Mr. Cantor said that afternoon, adding that Mr. Bruno's giving up his Majority Leader post while continuing to serve out his Senate term has increased the possibility of that happening.

"I think it makes it harder for the Republicans to hold on," he said of the transition to Senator Skelos. "Bruno was an immensely charming guy - very hard not to like him, and there is a human element to politics. Bruno's departure makes us feel that this is the year."

The WFP has nonetheless endorsed three Republican incumbents - Tomas Morahan in Rockland County, George Maziarz in western New York and John DeFrancisco representing the Syracuse area - who are not expected to face strong challenges. But Mr. Cantor remarked, "There's a half-dozen, maybe more races that are potential pick-ups for the Democratic candidates," and the WFP will be heavily involved in them.

Some of the targets are obvious, such as Queens Sen. Serphin Maltese, who encountered an unexpectedly tough race two years ago even without heavy involvement from the WFP and its allies or the Queens Democratic Party. But Mr. Cantor said his organization was likely to take a shot in districts where longtime and popular incumbents like Frank Padavan of Queens seem less vulnerable.

'They'll Pay Price for Bush'

"The anger about George Bush is still there, and New York Republicans are going to pay a price for his colossal failures," he said, suggesting a strong vote for Barack Obama for president in much of the state could carry over to the Senate races.

Mr. Henning also believed that tide could influence the outcome of enough Senate races to tip the balance of power to the Democrats. "I understand the narrow pull on the unions to dance with the ones that brung you, but I think at this point the ability of the Republicans to bring us anywhere is very much in question," he said.

Mr. Hughes, however, is not ready to switch partners. "I think from our point of view it's a matter of managing change rather than initiating change," he said.

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