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Union announces endorsements for 2002

April 29, 2002 - Ohio's largest public employee union announced today that it has endorsed five Democrats and two Republicans for statewide offices for elections this November.

OCSEA leaders said the group has endorsed Tim Black and Janet Burnside for Supreme Court and fellow Democrat Tim Hagan for Governor. In other statewide office races, the union is backing Republicans Betty Montgomery and Joseph Deters for State Auditor and State Treasurer, respectively; Democrats Leigh Herrington and Bryan Flannery for Attorney General and Secretary of State, respectively.

"We are deeply concerned about the danger of an anti-labor tilt to the Ohio Supreme Court," said OCSEA Executive Director Irwin Scharfeld. "This is one of the most important races to our members and we are going to work hard to support Black and Burnside."

Scharfeld said that although the union has had a fairly good relationship with Gov. Bob Taft, the union's political action committee opted to endorse Hagan. "Tim Hagan was consistently supportive of public employee concerns when he was a Cuyahoga County commissioner, and we find many areas of common ground. We have also had a cooperative relationship with the Taft administration, however some actions, like the decision to close a public prison instead of the privately-managed ones, have deeply angered many of our members," said Scharfeld.

Although it is relatively rare for a union to endorse Republicans, Scharfeld defended OCSEA's support for Montgomery and Deters. "Deters and Montgomery are veteran political leaders - but they are also known as the 'boss' to hundreds of our members who work in the State Treasurer and Attorney General offices," said OCSEA Governmental Affairs Director Kim Fellinger. "In this role, Joe and Betty have both shown a integrity and fairness in handling employee matters. That's what matters to us -not whether a candidate has a 'D' or 'R' after their name."

OCSEA represents 38,000 state and other public employees including blue collar, patient care, clerical, technical and professional workers. It is an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.