Labor & Employment Law

Progressive Dem Faces Off with Tea Party Candidate in Kentucky

By Berry Craig

Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, says he can count 2,500 reasons why he’ll vote for Democrat Jack Conway for the U.S. Senate.

The National Right to Work Committee gave Republican Rand Paul $2,500.

Conway will face Paul in the Nov. 2 general election. Conway, a Louisville native, is Kentucky’s attorney general. Paul is a Bowling Green eye doctor and the son of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Though he had never run for office, Paul handily defeated Secretary of State Trey Grayson of Richwood whose supporters included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Dick Cheney. One of Grayson’s biggest boosters was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Conway, a progressive Democrat, edged out Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo of Hazard in the Democratic primary. Both primaries also had minor candidates, too.

The Tea Party movement got behind Paul in the May 18 primary. He was endorsed by Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate who has become a Tea Party favorite.

“I have a message, a message from the tea party,” Paul said in his victory speech, “a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We’ve come to take our government back.”

 Londrigan says it is significant where Paul made his speech and threw his victory party?at the Bowling Green Country Club.

He says he is for ordinary working people who are hurting. But it just goes to show you who his constituents really are?wealthy country club-goers and not common folks. It just shows you the hypocrisy of Rand Paul.

Londrigan says Paul’s big check from the National Right to Work Committee is more proof Paul’s friends include “those who oppose organized labor and the interests of working men and women of this commonwealth and this country.

The Right to Work Committee is backed by large corporations that are hell-bent on destroying organized labor.

Both Conway and Mongiardo, a former state senator, oppose “right to work” for less laws and support the Employee Free Choice Act. Paul opposes the proposed act, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.

The state AFL-CIO voted to endorse neither Conway nor Mongiardo in the primary, Londrigan says. 

We really took a hard look at them and decided the best course was to remain neutral. Individual unions and union members were free to support who they wanted. Both Conway and Mongiardo had union support.

But now the work begins. Now we have to come together and make sure we get Jack Conway elected. Now we’ve got to go out and show our members that he is their true friend and not that charlatan Paul.

Londrigan says Paul is too extreme for Kentucky.

He is so far out on the fringes. I don’t think his views will be acceptable to most Kentuckians.

Londrigan says Paul is wrong on more than “right to work” and the Employee Free Choice Act.

He is wrong on health care and on banking reform. He is an anti-government fanatic. We certainly will be informing our members that his positions are counter to theirs on every issue that affects their livelihoods.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).