| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
SACRAMENTO (AP) As recent polls show more support for recalling Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday, state employees, teachers and other union workers are increasing their phone banks, distribution of fliers and door-to-door visits to stop the recall.
``This week, a lot of us are volunteering more than once a week. We're getting worried because of the polls,'' said Linda Tubach, a high school social studies teacher in Los Angeles who is volunteering at a phone bank.
Because 3 million Californians belong to unions, their efforts can be a potent political force, as the results of the last three statewide elections have shown, said Democratic consultant Kam Kuwata.
``I have been the victim of the labor push and the beneficiary of the labor push,'' said Kuwata, who is not affiliated with any of the gubernatorial campaigns.
In 1998, Kuwata saw his candidate, Rep. Jane Harman, get left behind in the Democratic primary after unions urged their members to vote against Proposition 226, which would have required unions to get their members' permission to spend money on political causes, and to vote for then-Lt. Gov. Davis.
Exit polls following the 1998 primary found that labor families voted overwhelmingly for Davis.
``Davis was certainly coming up on the polls, but they had a very substantial push to vote against the union item and for Davis,'' Kuwata said.
Nationally, union-led get-out-the-vote drives helped spur to Vice President Al Gore to a 500,000-vote lead over Republican George Bush in the 2000 presidential election, although Bush ended up winning the electoral vote. That Democratic success led the Republicans to follow suit last year, when similar vote drives boosted GOP candidates in several states.
Union-led voters drives could contribute as much as 2 percentage points to a candidate's tally, said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. That ``doesn't sound like much, but in a close election, that can be decisive.
``We turn out in greater numbers than other groups,'' Tubach said. ``That's why labor is a significant political force. It's because we've learned how to do phone banks and precinct walks and get organized this way.''
In other states, churches and religious organizations can mobilize voters, but that's not a force in California, Pitney said.
``The Republicans don't really have a force quite to match labor. You've got the Republican party apparatus itself, and business groups, but the unions are the gold standard of get-out-the-vote drives,'' he said.
``In every election, Republicans should worry about union get-out-the-vote drives,'' Pitney said. ``When they're pumped up and motivated, they're always a force.''
By election day, the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, expects to have spent more than $5 million to push its recommendations: No on recall, yes on Bustamante and no on Proposition 54, said spokesman Nathan Ballard.
About 2.1 million workers are members of unions under the AFL-CIO umbrella, Ballard said. The union tried to simplify the complex ballot by customizing the fliers to union members. The list of candidates' names rotates, so ballots in each of the 80 Assembly districts will be different.
That means voters receiving these mailings ``will see a facsimile of their exact ballot with our choice highlighted,'' Ballard said.
Other unions backing Davis include the California State Employees Association, representing 132,000 state workers and retirees, and the California Teachers Association, the largest of the state's two teachers union, with 335,000 members.
CSEA will spend $650,000 in the short election cycle, with some going to oppose Proposition 54, the initiative that would limit the ability of government to collect information based on ethnic background, but the majority of it is invested in keeping Davis in office.
CTA will spend $500,000 to let members know the union's position of ``No on Recall, Yes on Bustamante'' through fliers and phone banks.
Beyond its political experience, CTA president Barbara Kerr said, ``we have an advantage that ... there are teachers in every community. We're everywhere.''
The state's other teachers union, the 65,000-member California Federation of Teachers, gave $50,000 to oppose the recall, $100,000 to the AFL-CIO anti-recall campaign and $100,000 to oppose Proposition 54, said spokesman Fred Glass.
The ``fear factor'' helps explain why there's no shortage of volunteers this year for phone banks and precinct walking, Glass said. ``They're not wildly enthusiastic about Davis as a person, but they see he has tried to hold the line in times of fiscal austerity for education spending.''
Tabuch, a member of the California Federation of Teachers, reminds union members that they've benefited with Davis' changes in overtime rules and his approval of the family medical leave act.
Union workers are reliable voters, she said but ``once in a while we talk to people who express dissatisfaction with both parties.''
When that happens, she said, she urges them to stick with the Democrats.
``A vote for a third party only helps a Republican candidate,'' she said. ``We have to debate some of the radicals in our midst and say, 'no, we can't lose your vote to the Greens.' This is not the time to vote Green.''