32BJ SEIU, the largest private sector union in the state, and sister union to the powerful 1199 SEIU healthcare union, is thowing themselves into the fight for the Senate majority. And unlike their sister, they’re backing the Senate Democrats.
32BJ has committed upwards of $250,000 to the wider effort of helping the Democrats take control of the Senate. They’ve donated to individual campaigns, given money to the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, and are doing independent mail and television ads for select candidates, including Democrats Brian Foley on Long Island, “Baby Joe” Mesi in Buffalo, and Joseph Addabbo in Queens.
The photo above is from a mailer that 32BJ is sending out to households in the 3rd SD on behalf of Democratic challenger Brian Foley, who is challenging Republican Sen. Caesar Trunzo. They’ll be sending out five different mailers, not in coordination with the campaign. See two full mailers here and here.
In addition, they are enlisting their membership to help Addabbo against Maltese. In this race, they’ll be up against their sister union, 1199, which recently endorsed Maltese.
Also, the union is heavily supporting Mesi in Wester New York. They’ve purchased airtime and will run television ads for the last ten days of the race, starting next Friday.
This is the first time that 32BJ has really thrown itself into the Senate fight, and unlike most unions (which generally support incumbents), is thowing all its resources behind the Democrats.
The majority of 32BJ’s membership is in the New York Metro area, but they’re weighing in heavily in an upstate race, a “sign of things to come,” said 32BJ spokesman Matthew Nerzig.
The union represents building maintenance workers and deals mostly with private real estate companies - and have had less intereaction with state government compared with 1199. Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith is a businessman and has ties to the real estate industry.
32BJ is heavily invested in IDA reform and part of the reason they are working so hard in the Foley/ Trunzo race is because Trunzo “has not been very cooperative in helping our efforts to reform IDAs,” said Nerzig.
