North Bay Labor Council Candidates Do Well in 2019 Election

Last night’s election was a good night for working families. Nationally, we did pretty well. A Democrat ousted the Republican Governor who was a Trump favorite. And in Virginia, Democrats took control of the both Houses of the State Legislature for the first time in over 25 years. This bodes well for the 2020 elections. Especially in Kentucky where Amy McGrath is challenging the turtle, Mitch McConnell. These are exciting times with still a lot of work yet to be done.

Locally, our Marin contenders also fared well. We endorsed 7 candidates in three races, 5 won. That’s a 71% success rate.

Eric Lucan handily won his re-election bid in Novato with almost 79% of the vote. That was particularly gratifying. Eric was a stalwart in our Minimum Wage fight. In fact, the local chamber withdrew their support from Eric when he wouldn’t back down. His overwhelming win was very sweet indeed.

Our other endorsed candidates in Novato, Amy Peele and Susan Wernick also won their bids. This was the first district election for Novato. Peele will take the seat in District 5, previously held by Josh Fryday, who stepped down to take an appointment from Governor Newsom. Wernick was elected in District 1, previously held by Pam Drew who chose not to run for re-election.  

In San Anselmo, Steve Burdo was the top votegetter in a race with 4 candidates (for 2 seats) including a longtime incumbent which is quite an achievement. Burdo is a very strong Labor supporter and we enthusiastically supported his candidacy. This is his third attempt, proving perseverance pays off. Our other endorsed candidate in that race, Kim Pipkin was not successful. That said, we were proud to stand by Kim who came in 3rd of the four candidates.  

And in Fairfax, where 3 candidates ran for 2 seats, the incumbent, Renee Goddard was successful as the top votegetter. Goddard didn’t participate in our endorsement process; however, we did endorse the other two candidates. Stephanie Hellman and Cindy Swift who are locked in a tight race presently too close to call. They’re currently separated by 24 votes or less than a percentage point with Swift in the lead. With the trend going toward Hellman, this is a result that could change when all is said and done. There are approximately 500 votes yet to be counted in Fairfax. These are late absentees. Also remembering, the Registrar of Voters can still accept votes received by mail up until Friday, this one is up for grabs. Proving once again, that every vote counts. That said, we endorsed both these candidates so either way, we win.

These local races may not be as exciting as the state and national picture, but they really do matter. The saying “all politics is local” is so true. First, most of those state and national electeds started out on a city council or school board somewhere. If it’s all about relationships, it behooves us to start developing these relationships now. That aside, we also have very important battles locally for working people like our Minimum Wage Ordinance we’re currently working on with North Bay Jobs with Justice. These decisions are essential to local working folks and we must keep up the fight. It matters who sits on these councils.

So congratulations to all our winners in these local city council races and thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make these wins possible. Win or lose, all these candidates fought a hard and righteous battle. We were proud to stand with each of them.  

Pictured right to left: John Ryan Elward, Jackie Elward, Winner Eric Lucan, and NBLC Delegate Ever Flores celebrating Lucan's win.