Lincoln Chafee - Independent Candidate for Rhode Island Governor

Major union backs Chafee in bid for governorship

July 22, 2010

By Katherine Gregg

Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- Former U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee has won the first major union endorsement in his campaign for governor from the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch had been an early favorite of organized labor.

But with Democrat Lynch now out of the race, Chafee appears to have been an easy choice for the federation which represents 10,000 workers across Rhode Island, including roughly 7,000 public school teachers in 11 districts, including Chafee's home city of Warwick, and 1,000 state employees.

Chafee described the endorsement as a recognition of his "long record of support of public education," his role in settling the teacher dispute he "inherited" when he first won election as mayor of Warwick, his resistance while he was still in the U.S. Senate to "some strong Republican pressure to support [school] vouchers," and his call for the appointment of a mediator to help settle the standoff between the teachers union and the administration in Central Falls.

"Central Falls was really one event that, I think, crystalized the union support," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

The union backed Chafee's Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in his doomed 2006 campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate. "Unions typically support Democrats ... I have a good record, and I am now an independent [which is] a little less difficult for the union."

Federation President Marcia Reback said the endorsement comes with pledges of money from the state federation and its member locals, a get-out-the-vote effort, door-to-door leafleting and phone banking and, in her own case, the promise that she will personally host a reception for Chafee at her home.

Recent polls have Chafee leading or running slightly ahead of the only Democrat left in the race: General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio. Reback said Caprio "chose not to be interviewed."

But that does not mean that Caprio has been averse to union support.

In May, he won the endorsement of two locals in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. One represents about 1,000 construction electricians, and the other about 1,000 telephone, cable and Internet workers.

"Almost 45 percent of our local is unemployed right now, and their families are hurting," said Al Durand, business manager of one of the two locals. "We need Frank's leadership and his ideas, and I know our local is ready to rally behind him."

In June, he nailed down the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 251, which has more than 5,800 members.

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Linc Chafee is a tested leader of unquestioned integrity and a strong independent voice. As Governor, he will work hard to create new jobs, rebuild our economy, solve our chronic budget problems, end corruption, and forge a new way forward for Rhode Island.