With a little more than a month until Election Day, the endorsements keep coming in the mayoral, attorney general, and D.C. Council at-large races. Below, a rundown of recent endorsements.
SEIU Locals
The local council of the Service Employees International Union endorsed Vince Gray in the primary, but this time, they’re all about Muriel Bowser. The union council joined the long list of other unions backing Bowser on Monday.
While at-large hopeful Elissa Silverman has won over SEIU locals 32BJ and 1199, which represent office cleaning crews and health-care staff, respectively, education facility workers local 500 and hospital workers local 722 are backing candidate Robert White. Several SEIU locals are continuing to back Democratic candidate Anita Bonds for one of the two available at-large seats after endorsing her in the primary.
Local 722 is also backing attorney general hopeful Karl Racine. With many of their members living outside the District, union endorsements can be more useful for volunteers and mailers than for members’ votes.
Sierra Club D.C.
In the at-large race, the Sierra Club’s District chapter recently endorsed White and Silverman. Since they’re already backing Bonds, that puts them in the position of endorsing three candidates for two available seats.
“All three would be excellent councilmembers,” political committee chairman Bob Summersgill writes in an email to LL.
Washington Teachers’ Union
The politically feisty Washington Teacher’s Union is sitting out the mayoral race, which makes sense since the leading three candidates have either promised to keep schools chancellor and union nemesis Kaya Henderson or, in the case of David Catania, at least spoken positively about her.
The union isn’t as reluctant to jump into the at-large and attorney general races, though. WTU endorsed Paul Zukerberg for attorney general, while also backing progressive at-large candidate Graylan Hagler, who has accused Henderson of misleading parents on school progress.
LiUNA!
The LiUNA laborers’ union local council already endorsed Democratic candidate Bonds for one of the two available at-large seats during the primary. Now they’ve come up with their pick for the other seat, endorsing Silverman.
Democratic Bigwigs
They aren’t really an organization, but SEIU staffer-turned-at-large candidate Khalid Pitts has won over some former Barack Obama campaign staffers. Former Obama campaign workers Mitch Stewart, Bill Burton, and Stephanie Cutter threw an “Obama Reunion Fundraiser” for the candidate at his Logan Circle wine bar Monday, according to a press release from his campaign.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery