(Cross-posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) kicked off his campaign for re-election yesterday-and he was met by union members who are trying to tell the truth about Coleman’s poor record when it comes to issues that matter to working families.
Coleman flew to three events around the state and at each one, union members were out in force to confront Coleman about his anti-worker record. In St. Paul, Rochester and Duluth, labor leaders and activists talked about Coleman’s tight ties with big-money special interests and his deeply flawed votes.
Laura Askelin, president of the Southeast Minnesota Area Labor Council, points to Coleman’s voting record and his allegiance to the Bush agenda, and says that Coleman won’t make the changes needed.
I’m here today to make sure that everyone knows that Norm Coleman is not on our side…Norm Coleman consistently puts special corporate interests and the Republican Party ahead of the best interests of middle class Minnesotans…we are determined to put a stop to the Bush-Coleman agenda.
Coleman was a Democrat during the 1990s, but he switched parties in 2000 and worked hard to elect Bush. In 2002, he replaced the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, a champion of working families, in the Senate. Coleman has been a die-hard supporter of the Bush agenda and a reliable vote for Bush’s priorities in the Senate. In July 2004, Coleman’s home paper, the Star Tribune, said that Coleman had “morphed into an attack dog for President Bush.”
Coleman’s record in the Senate shows a clear pattern of votes benefiting the special interests who contribute to his campaigns.
For example, instead of fighting for better health coverage for all, he’s sponsored bills to create “association health plans” that would raise premiums and reduce benefits and “health savings accounts” that shift costs from employers to employees. And, no surprise: Coleman has taken in hundreds of thousands from insurance companies and drug companies.
Coleman has voted against laws that help homeowners in times of crisis, even as foreclosures in his state have shot up 69 percent in the last year. Meanwhile, he’s taken thousands in contributions from the mortgage banking industry.
And Coleman is one of the minority of Senators who prevented a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act. He’s voted against workers’ overtime rights, against strengthening Social Security and against extending unemployment benefits.
Yet when it comes time to run for re-election, Coleman claims he’s an independent thinker, a moderate who isn’t bound by partisanship. Independent in rhetoric, a reactionary Bush ally when it’s time to vote: if it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same game practiced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Coleman endorsed McCain for president last month.
Union members are staying focused on the key issues that matter to working families, but the media, unfortunately, isn’t providing the answers and the scrutiny they ought to. Today in Washington, D.C., activists from MoveOn and Brave New Films will present 200,000 petitions to ABC News headquarters, as well as other key media outlets, demanding better coverage. A fair election that focuses on the right issues will require the commitment of mobilized, engaged citizens.
In Minnesota, union members are starting that mobilization. They won’t let McCain and Coleman fool the voters. They’ll be working throughout the year, through phone calls, workplace visits, door-to-door education and events like today’s, to make sure that the next administration and the next Congress will protect working families.