CSBA Leader Johnson Wins Narrow Decision In Re-Election Race

GLORIA JOHNSON: Survives a stiff challenge.

Gloria Johnson, the 14-year incumbent president of the Civil Service Bar Association was narrowly re-elected June 9 in a low-turnout contest that she called "a very nasty battle."

She defeated Saul Fishman by 133 votes to 117, with the incumbents on her slate winning by slightly wider margins. Mr. Fishman, who headed the "Members for Change" slate, said in a phone interview that "it was very close, it was like 53 to 47 percent. Considering she's a 14-year incumbent, I think it's pretty unusual."

Says Low Turnout Tells Story

He continued, "the bigger story is that 400 out of the 600 some-odd voters didn't even bother to return the postage-paid envelopes to the American Arbitration Association." Two hundred fifty-three voters, out of the 656 who were mailed ballots, participated.

Ms. Johnson acknowledged in a phone interview that she was "disappointed that the members didn't pay more attention" to the contest, but she predicted that had they done so, "the margin of victory would have been much greater."

She added that Mr. Fishman was "a former business agent who was removed from his position and vowed to get even with me; that's why he was running."

Mr. Fishman countered that the voter apathy was indicative of the union's lack of activism in recent years under Ms. Johnson. "There's no reason for anyone to come down, to be involved; no committees or communication with members," he said.p "The union's been made all but invisible and irrelevant. There's no newsletter, no e-mail updates, a pathetic Web site that contains no information."

Ms. Johnson disagreed, saying that her recent record as president was clearly successful. "From my perspective and our incumbent board members' perspective, we all served on the bargaining committee and we got our members a good contract," she said. "None of our members have been laid off. I think we've continued to do the good job we've been doing for a number of years."

The other incumbent winners were Margot Shields, who was re-elected First Vice President over Collette Grant; Second Vice President Ilene Shifrin, who defeated Dominador Pascual; Douglas Cohn, who beat Lee Gordon to continue as treasurer; Corresponding Secretary Frank McCaffrey, who outpolled Mario Ligorio, and Nelson Aviles, who prevailed over Sherilyn James to continue as Recording Secretary.