Metro Detroit Aflcio

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Rally attendees asking Pulte Homes: “Where is the 900 Million dollars?”

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2010 General Election Endorsements

METRO DETROIT AFL-CIO
2010 GENERAL ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS
STATE, COUNTY, LOCAL & JUDICIAL OFFICES
November 2, 2010

FEDERAL OFFICES
FIRST NAME LAST NAME OFFICE
GARY PETERS U.S. Representative – CD 09
HENRY YANEZ U.S. Representative – CD 10
SANDER LEVIN U.S. Representative – CD 12
HANSEN CLARKE U.S. Representative – CD 13
JOHN CONYERS U.S. Representative – CD 14
JOHN DINGELL U.S. Representative – CD 15

STATEWIDE OFFICES
FIRST NAME LAST NAME OFFICE
VIRG BERNERO Michigan Governor
BRENDA LAWRENCE Michigan Lieutenant Governor

JOCELYN BENSON Michigan Secretary of State

DAVID LEYTON Michigan Attorney General

DENISE LANGFORD-MORRIS MI Supreme Court Justice
ALTON THOMAS DAVIS MI Supreme Court Justice

LIZ BAUER MI State Board of Education
LUPE RAMOS-MONTIGNY MI State Board of Education

COLLEEN McNAMARA MI State Univ. Bd. Of Trustees
DENNIS DENNO MI State Univ. Bd. Of Trustees

GREG STEPHENS Univ. Of MI Board of Regents
PAUL BROWN Univ. Of MI Board of Regents

BRENDA MOON Wayne St. Univ. Bd. Of Governors
ED BRULEY Wayne St. Univ. Bd. Of Governors

COLEMAN A. YOUNG, Jr. Michigan Senate – SD 01
BERT JOHNSON Michigan Senate – SD 02
MORRIS HOOD Michigan Senate – SD 03
VIRGIL SMITH Michigan Senate – SD 04
TUPAC HUNTER Michigan Senate – SD 05
GLENN ANDERSON Michigan Senate – SD 06
KATHLEEN LAW Michigan Senate – SD 07
HOON-YOUNG HOPGOOD Michigan Senate – SD 08
STEVE BIEDA Michigan Senate – SD 09
PAUL GIELEGHEM Michigan Senate – SD 10
JIM AYERS Michigan Senate – SD 11
CASANDRA ULBRICH Michigan Senate – SD 12
AARON BAILEY Michigan Senate – SD 13
VINCE GREGORY Michigan Senate – SD 14
PAMELA JACKSON Michigan Senate – SD 15

LISA HOWZE Michigan Representative – HD 02
ALBERTA TINSLEY-TALABI Michigan Representative – HD 03
MAUREEN STAPLETON Michigan Representative – HD 04
JOHN OLUMBA Michigan Representative – HD 05
FRED DURHAL Michigan Representative – HD 06
JIMMY WOMACK Michigan Representative – HD 07
THOMAS III STALLWORTH Michigan Representative – HD 08
SHANELLE JACKSON Michigan Representative – HD 09
HARVEY SANTANA Michigan Representative – HD 10
RASHIDA TLAIB Michigan Representative – HD 12
ANDREW KANDREVAS Michigan Representative – HD 13
PAUL CLEMENTE Michigan Representative – HD 14
GEORGE DARANY Michigan Representative – HD 15
PHIL CAVANAGH Michigan Representative – HD 17
RICHARD LeBLANC Michigan Representative – HD 18
JOSEPH LARKIN Michigan Representative – HD 19
JOAN WADSWORTH Michigan Representative – HD 20
DIAN SLAVENS Michigan Representative – HD 21
DOUGLAS GEISS Michigan Representative – HD 22
DEB KENNEDY Michigan Representative – HD 23
SARAH ROBERTS Michigan Representative – HD 24
JON SWITALSKI Michigan Representative – HD 25
JIM TOWNSEND Michigan Representative – HD 26
ELLEN COGEN LIPTON Michigan Representative – HD 27
LESIA LISS Michigan Representative – HD 28
KEN LAMPAR Michigan Representative – HD 30
MARILYN LANE Michigan Representative – HD 31
JENNIFER HAASE Michigan Representative – HD 32
ANDREW PRASILOSKI Michigan Representative – HD 33
RUDY HOBBS Michigan Representative – HD 35
ROBERT MURPHY Michigan Representative – HD 36
VICKI BARNETT Michigan Representative – HD 37
JEFFERY GEDEON Michigan Representative – HD 38
LISA BROWN Michigan Representative – HD 39
EDMUND SPILLERS Michigan Representative – HD 41
HAROLD HAUGH Michigan Representative – HD 42
REGINA STRONG SCOTT Michigan Representative – HD 43
PHIL FABRIZIO Michigan Representative – HD 44

JUDICIAL OFFICES
FIRST NAME LAST NAME OFFICE
MARGIE BRAXTON *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
ERIC CHOLACK *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
JAMES CHYLINSKI *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
GERSHWIN DRAIN *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
WANDA EVANS *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
PATRICIA FRESARD *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
DAVID GRONER *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
MURIEL D. HUGHES *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
SHEILA GIBSON MANNING *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
BRUCE U. MORROW *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
JOHN A. MURPHY *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
MARK SLAVENS *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
JEANNE STEMPIEN *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
BRIAN SULLIVAN *Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
*19 Incumbent Positions
SUSAN HUBBARD **Circuit Court Judge – 03rd Circ
**1 Non-Incumbent Position
MICHAEL SERVITTO Circuit Court Judge – 16th Circ

ED NYKIEL District Court Judge – 33rd Dist

IZETTA BRIGHT *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
DEBORAH G.B. FORD *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
KATHERINE HANSEN *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
MIRIAM B. MARTIN-CLARK *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
B. PENNIE MILLENDER *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
CYLENTHIA LaTOYE MILLER *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
LYDIA NANCE-ADAMS *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
WENDY READOUS *District Court Judge – 36th Dist
*10 Incumbent Positions
NOCEEBA SOUTHERN **District Court Judge – 36th Dist
**1 Incumbent Partial Term
MATTHEW SABAUGH District Court Judge – 37th Dist

CATHERINE STEENLAND District Court Judge – 39th Dist

SHEILA MILLER District Court Judge – 41B Dist

BILL RICHARDS District Court Judge – 46th Dist

MACOMB COUNTY OFFICES
FIRST NAME LAST NAME OFFICE
TONI MOCERI Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 01
MARVIN SAUGER Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 02
PHILIP A. DiMARIA Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 03
DAVID FLYNN Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 04
ROBERT MIJAC Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 05
DOMINIC LaROSA Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 06
BRIAN BRDAK Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 08
FRED MILLER Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 09
WILLIAM A. CROUCHMAN Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 10
KATHY TOCCO Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 11
JEFFERY SPRYS Macomb Co. Comm – Dist 13
JAMES F. KELLY Macomb Comm Coll. Trustee

OAKLAND COUNTY OFFICES
FIRST NAME LAST NAME OFFICE
MIKE McGUINNESS Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 05
CHRIS DuBOIS Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 07
KAREN ZYCZYNSKI Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 09
MATTIE McKINNEY-HATCHETT Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 10
TIM GREIMEL Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 11
STEVEN H. SCHWARTZ Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 14
JIM NASH Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 15
KATHY HAGOPIAN Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 16
MARSHA GERSHENSON Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 17
DAVE WOODWARD Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 18
TIM BURNS Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 19
JANET JACKSON Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 21
HELAINE ZACK Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 22
NANCY QUARLES Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 23
GARY McGILLIVRAY Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 24
CRAIG COVEY Oakland Co. Comm – Dist 25
DANA MARGARET HATHAWAY Oakland Co. Probate Ct. Judge

WAYNE COUNTY OFFICES
FIRST NAME LAST NAME OFFICE
NANCY MYERS Taylor Public School Board

TIM KILLEEN Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 01
BERNARD PARKER Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 02
MARTHA G. SCOTT Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 03
JEWEL WARE Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 04
ILONA VARGA Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 05
IRMA CLARK-COLEMAN Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 06
BURTON LELAND Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 07
ALISHA BELL Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 08
DIANE WEBB Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 09
JOAN GEBHARDT Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 12
RAYMOND BASHAM Wayne Co. Comm – Dist 15

BENNY NAPOLEON Wayne County Sheriff

Clark Motel
900 Clairmont Avenue
Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: (313) 871-7700

Courtyard by Marriott Ann Arbor
3205 Boardwalk
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: 734-995-5900

Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center
Detroit, MI 48243
Phone: 313-568-8000

Doubletree Hotel Detroit Metro Airport
31500 Wick Rd.
Romulus, MI 48174
Phone: 734-467-8000

Fairfield Inn Ann Arbor
3285 Boardwalk
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: 734-995-5200

Hilton Garden Inn Detroit Downtown
351 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: 313-967-0900

Hotel St. Regis
3071 West Grand Boulevard
Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: (313) 873-3000

Hyatt Regency Dearborn
Fairlane Town Center
Dearborn, MI 48126-2793
Phone: 313 593 1234

Pontchartrain Hotel (Currently CLOSED)
2 Washington Blvd.
Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: (313) 965-0200

Quality Inn Dearborn
21430 Michigan Avenue
Dearborn, MI 48124
Phone: (313) 565-0800

Radisson Kingsley Hotel And Suites
39475 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
Phone: (248) 644-1400

Hilton – Troy
5500 Crooks Rd.
Troy, MI 48098
Phone: 248-879-2100

Westin Hotel – Southfield
1500 Town Center
Southfield, MI 48075
Phone: (248) 827-4000

Westin - Metro Airport
McNamara Terminal
Romulus, MI 48242
Phone: 734-942-6500

Comprising of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO is the largest CLC in the State of Michigan. As with any CLC, the primary responsibility of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO to bring different unions together to work collectively to increase union membership, educate and mobilize already existing union members, and create a powerful voice for working families.

Included in this list is a link (when available) to websites for unions affiiated with the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO.  If your union isn’t listed but you know it has a website, urge your local officer to contact the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO at 313 961-0800 or thill@metrodetroitaflcio.org so your union website can be included in this list.

Affiliates of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO include:

Public Employees Are Convenient Scapegoats by Robert Reich

In 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life. Eventually Memphis heard the grievances of its sanitation workers. And in subsequent years millions of public employees across the nation have benefited from the job protections they’ve earned.

But now the right is going after public employees.

Public servants are convenient scapegoats. Republicans would rather deflect attention from corporate executive pay that continues to rise as corporate profits soar, even as corporations refuse to hire more workers. They don’t want stories about Wall Street bonuses, now higher than before taxpayers bailed out the Street. And they’d like to avoid a spotlight on the billions raked in by hedge-fund and private-equity managers whose income is treated as capital gains and subject to only a 15 percent tax, due to a loophole in the tax laws designed specifically for them.

It’s far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public’s work — sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees — to call them “faceless bureaucrats” and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets. The story fits better with the Republican’s Big Lie that our problems are due to a government that’s too big.

Above all, Republicans don’t want to have to justify continued tax cuts for the rich. As quietly as possible, they want to make them permanent.
But the right’s argument is shot-through with bad data, twisted evidence, and unsupported assertions.

They say public employees earn far more than private-sector workers. That’s untrue when you take account of level of education. Matched by education, public sector workers actually earn less than their private-sector counterparts.

The Republican trick is to compare apples with oranges — the average wage of public employees with the average wage of all private-sector employees. But only 23 percent of private-sector employees have college degrees; 48 percent of government workers do. Teachers, social workers, public lawyers who bring companies to justice, government accountants who try to make sure money is spent as it should be — all need at least four years of college.

Compare apples to apples and you’d see that over the last fifteen years the pay of public sector workers has dropped relative to private-sector employees with the same level of education. Public sector workers now earn 11 percent less than comparable workers in the private sector, and local workers 12 percent less. (Even if you include health and retirement benefits, government employees still earn less than their private-sector counterparts with similar educations.)   Here’s another whopper. Republicans say public-sector pensions are crippling the nation. They say politicians have given in to the demands of public unions who want only to fatten their members’ retirement benefits without the public noticing. They charge that public-employee pensions obligations are out of control.

Some reforms do need to be made. Loopholes that allow public sector workers to “spike” their final salaries in order to get higher annuities must be closed. And no retired public employee should be allowed to “double dip,” collecting more than one public pension.

But these are the exceptions. Most public employees don’t have generous pensions. After a career with annual pay averaging less than $45,000, the typical newly-retired public employee receives a pension of $19,000 a year. Few would call that overly generous.

And most of that $19,000 isn’t even on taxpayers’ shoulders. While they’re working, most public employees contribute a portion of their salaries into their pension plans. Taxpayers are directly responsible for only about 14 percent of public retirement benefits. Remember also that many public workers aren’t covered by Social Security, so the government isn’t contributing 6.25 of their pay into the Social Security fund as private employers would.
Yes, there’s cause for concern about unfunded pension liabilities in future years. They’re way too big. But it’s much the same in the private sector. The main reason for underfunded pensions in both public and private sectors is investment losses that occurred during the Great Recession. Before then, public pension funds had an average of 86 percent of all the assets they needed to pay future benefits — better than many private pension plans.   The solution is no less to slash public pensions than it is to slash private ones. It’s for all employers to fully fund their pension plans.

The final Republican canard is that bargaining rights for public employees have caused state deficits to explode. In fact there’s no relationship between states whose employees have bargaining rights and states with big deficits. Some states that deny their employees bargaining rights — Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona, for example, are running giant deficits of over 30 percent of spending. Many that give employees bargaining rights — Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Montana — have small deficits of less than 10 percent.

Public employees should have the right to bargain for better wages and working conditions, just like all employees do. They shouldn’t have the right to strike if striking would imperil the public, but they should at least have a voice. They often know more about whether public programs are working, or how to make them work better, than political appointees who hold their offices for only a few years.
Don’t get me wrong. When times are tough, public employees should have to make the same sacrifices as everyone else. And they are right now. Pay has been frozen for federal workers, and for many state workers across the country as well.

But isn’t it curious that when it comes to sacrifice, Republicans don’t include the richest people in America? To the contrary, they insist the rich should sacrifice even less, enjoying even larger tax cuts that expand public-sector deficits. That means fewer public services, and even more pressure on the wages and benefits of public employees.  It’s only average workers — both in the public and the private sectors — who are being called upon to sacrifice.

This is what the current Republican attack on public-sector workers is really all about. Their version of class warfare is to pit private-sector workers against public servants. They’d rather set average working people against one another — comparing one group’s modest incomes and benefits with another group’s modest incomes and benefits — than have Americans see that the top 1 percent is now raking in a bigger share of national income than at any time since 1928, and paying at a lower tax rate. And Republicans would rather you didn’t know they want to cut taxes on the rich even more.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

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