Many Local 100 Candidates Are Primary Winners

Winning for Velmanette: Incumbent State Senator Velmanette Montgomery trounced her charter-school funded opponent, Mark Pollard, by four to one, with the help of a tight Local 100 field operation.

A field operation of about 40 vans with TWU Local 100 drivers and an additional 30 volunteers hit six races on Primary Day, September 14^th. Candidates Charlie Rangel, Francisco Moya, Gusatvo Rivera, Bill Perkins, Adrianno Espaillat, and Velmanette Montogmery got strong Union support. The results speak for themselves. Espaillat took a tough four-way contest with 51% of the vote. In the closely-watched Bronx State Senate race pitting Rivera against incumbent Pedro Espada, Rivera prevailed by 63%. Moya’s victory margin in Queens was 67%, Perkins romped in Manhattan with 76% of the vote, and Montgomery won by four-to-one (80%) in Central Brooklyn. Charlie Rangel, the long-time Harlem incumbent, won over four challengers with 53% of the vote.

Going into the day, no one knew whether big money poured into several races (notably Perkins and Montgomery’s contests) by charter school backers who were trying to defeat them, would have a decisive effect. So we had to be prepared to go all-out to see that they won.

Credit for TWU’s field work goes to every member who volunteered, and the captains who ran borough wide-operations, including Charles Jenkins in Queens, Curtis Tate in Manhattan, Marvin Holland in Brooklyn, and Mariano Rosado in the Bronx. Stations VP Maurice Jenkins worked the Rangel and Espaillat races. Political Action Director Vernon Thorpe was a constant presence throughout the day, visiting every campaign.

“Our people were in good spirits,” says Marvin Holland. “From 6AM to 9PM is a very long day, so it kind of wears people down. But we went the distance. In the General (on November 2), Tony Avella’s race will be big. And one State Senate district controlled by a Republican may be vulnerable. We can have a big impact again.”

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