IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
This election cycle presented some difficult choices for local public sector unions that often contribute heavily to races in order to influence the decision makers that determine their pay and benefits. The race between incumbent Janice Rutherford and Assemblyman Mark Steinorth created a dilemma as both were republicans Steinorth was going to have much more money but the incumbent would have the power of the office. Early polling that leaked and conventional wisdom was that Steinorth with a lot more money and strong name recognition from his assembly seat would beat the money starved and inactive Rutherford. As Jesse Unruh the Godfather of California policy-making is famously quoted as saying , “money is the mother’s milk of politics.”
A second supervisor’s race pits incumbent Curt Hagman against a challenger he had beaten before, Gloria Negrette-Mcleod. Mcleod drew the ire of the public employees unions who heavily backed her against Hagman previously when she did not according to many reports put her full-effort into the campaign. Hagman again appears to be out-working Mcleod with a huge ground game and volunteer effort.
Another race that involved a great deal of money imbalance and was one of the most hotly contested and negative races was the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s race. The embattled incumbent district attorney Mike Ramos who has been dogged by a variety of scandals and failed prosecutions is facing a well-financed and experienced challenger in Jason Anderson a popular former deputy district attorney and elected official.
Most of the public-sector unions decided to back Hagman and Steinorth and avoid the D.A. race because the district attorney has no power over their pay and benefits. But notably two public sector unions chose a different path and it is likely to going to really harm the membership for some time. While the teachers, Nurses, Laborers stayed fairly quiet in those races, SEIU and the Teamsters significantly supported two republicans in Hagman and Steinorth. While it is unusual for unions to heavily back republicans, in this case it was the play that made sense to local political campaign consultants. While most chose to remain off-the-record to avoid any complications for themselves in the future one former union leader was willing to speak out. Jim Erwin is the former head of S.E.B.A. – the Sheriff’s Employees Benefits Association the union that represents the San Bernardino County Sheriffs.
According to Erwin, “the smart play here was not hard to divine if you have any political sense at all. Most of the time you can start with following the money and then analyze candidates past performances. Steinorth and Hagman are great campaigners and had the resources they needed financially, Rutherford and Mcleod did not have the financial advantage, are lousy campaigners and lazy. Both have sort of ‘Forrest-Gumped’ their way through politically by being in the right place at the right time and never had a real fight.”
As for the District Attorney’s race, Erwin, who in interest of full disclosure was prosecuted and ultimately exonerated in the colonies case brought by district attorney Mike Ramos and is involved with a political action committee engaged in defeating Ramos said, “the attorneys association had an easy out in this one. They had never played in a D.A. race ever and could have told Mike (Ramos), that and stayed out but instead they backed him with tens of thousands of dollars and very public support and are going to lose.”
The San Bernardino County Public Attorneys Association (SBCPAA) has backed both Ramos and Rutherford with very large contributions and the union leadership very publicly endorsed and embraced both despite not having the backing of their membership. News reports have shown a rift in the organization stemming from union president, Doug Poston and the board members backing candidates who have never been supportive of the union’s goals of lower caseloads and higher pay and benefits.
“The decision making here by Poston and the board to use a legal term verges on malpractice,” said Erwin. “That union has spent an enormous amount of money backing two likely losers when they could have stayed neutral in both races without drawing the ire of anyone. Nothing short of total leadership change and financial make-goods to the winning candidates is going to suffice to get the attorneys back in the good-graces of the decision makers they are beholden to…they are really in a mess.”
