New York Capital Region/Hudson Valley 1199ers Help Secure Election of Worker-Friendly Officials

November 10, 2011

1199SEIU Member Political Organizers in New York’s Hudson Valley and Capital Region took to the streets in mid-October to campaign for the local candidates who would best represent the interests of working families and their communities. Their hard work proved successful when the ballots were counted on Election Day, November 8. Most 1199SEIU-backed candidates were elected.



Member Political Organizers (MPOs) are 1199SEIU healthcare workers who receive permission from their employers to take temporary leaves of absence from their care giving duties, in order to work on political campaigns that help elect labor-friendly officials or to campaign to protect public funding for hospitals, nursing homes and home care.



Leslie Sheldon, a CNA at Good Samaritan Care Center, a not-for-profit nursing home in Albany County, now considers herself a seasoned MPO. “This was my third time in the field,” she said. “I enjoy having conversations with people, listening to what they have to say, often giving them information about candidates that they didn’t have before. In many cases, it’s possible that someone wouldn’t have voted, if I hadn’t come right to their door and had a good give-and-take discussion with them. That’s one of the best parts of being an MPO for me.”



She and Denise King, of Rosewood Gardens Nursing Home, worked on campaigns in Guilderland in Albany County and Troy in Rensselaer County. “In Troy, our candidate for Mayor and all three candidates for City Council won,” said King. “We also were able to re-elect two incumbent City Council members. I feel good that we have some solid support for the issues that matter to us there.”



Sheldon added, “We had a great victory in Guilderland. Bryan Clenahan, one of our strongest advocates for Albany County Nursing Home, was re-elected to the county legislature with 61 percent of the votes in his favor.



Further west, in Schenectady County, Mary Ives, another experienced MPO, and first-timer Crystal Perry, successfully helped to elect five out of six county legislators who actively support the county funded nursing where they work, the Glendale Home.



Perry said, “I will definitely do this type of work again, if I can. I don’t think I realized how much it takes to work on elections before this, but now I know and it is worth it. I felt like I was really a part of things.”



In Westchester County, 1199SEIU members supported six Democratic candidates who are needed to maintain a veto-proof majority in the county legislature, in order to push back the anti-worker, conservative policies of the current County Executive. Four of those candidates were re-elected; one lost in a hard-fought race. The election in District 3 was too close to call on the night of the election, with each candidate receiving 50 percent of the vote.