Election 2012
9:25 AM - November 7, 2012
Volunteers made the difference
Members & staff defeated billionaire blitz
Local 1000’s success at the polls on Nov. 6 came down to one
thing: Volunteers.
“Without our member and staff volunteers we would not have
succeeded in so many races,” said Local 1000 President Yvonne R.
Walker. “We were up against billionaires, corporate special
interests and anonymous contributors who wanted to buy this
election. We won because we have something they will never have:
an army of committed volunteers.”
In the past two months, 1,800 members and staff completed more
than 7,700 shifts, including 1,500 precinct walks on behalf of
Proposition 30, against Proposition 32 and in support of
candidates for state and local offices. We had phone banks set up
in a dozen locations around the state, making more than 330,000
calls to identify supporters.
In the final four days leading up to the election, Local 1000 and
hundreds of volunteers from our sister SEIU locals knocked on the
doors of more than 300,000 homes where voters were previously
identified by our phone bank teams as supportive.
Most importantly, our army of volunteers was able to turn the
election around. Public opinion polls showed that Proposition 32
was likely to pass until our October blitz began to take effect.
Our efforts also helped save Proposition 30, which was behind in
opinion polls, from defeat.
“As state employees, politics has always had an impact on our
work so it only makes sense that we volunteer to work hard for
campaigns that benefit our members and California families as a
whole,” said Connie Kabeary, chair of our Committee on Political
Education. “Our members were able to educate thousands of voters
to show that Proposition 32 was an attempted power grab by a
small group of very rich people.”
Many of our members devoted hundreds of hours to the campaign.
Many took time off their state jobs to spend much of October as
fulltime member political organizers (MPO’s).
“I really feel that the work we did in the San Diego area
certainly made a difference here – this is a conservative area
but we were able to reach a lot of voters to explain that
Proposition 32 was not at all about campaign reform,” said Dorrie
Steadman, a Unit 17 nurse at Donovan Correctional Facility in San
Diego County who took six weeks off as an MPO. “We also made a
big difference in some local races.”
Some members, like Richard Hildebrand of Sacramento, were only
able to volunteer for a few days but made the most of
it.
“Until this election, I hadn’t really done anything political
since Obama ran in 2008,” said Hildebrand, a Unit 1 member at the
Department of Health Care Services. “I realized that the passage
of Proposition 32 would really crush labor and ultimately hurt
the whole middle class so I’m here to help.”
Phyllis Johnson, who retired in 2011 after 28 years in the
Department Public Health, volunteered five or six days a week
from September until Election Day at the Local 1000 headquarters
in Sacramento, helping with dozens of tasks such as helping phone
bankers and preparing packets for precinct walkers.
“I’m proud to help a good cause – I believe in what we do here,”
Johnson said. “There is very little I can do alone against these
power-hungry billionaires. But I’m not alone. I’m part of a
team of thousands. That’s why we won.”