LITTLE ROCK – In response to a report earlier this week in Hotline On Call that the AFL-CIO is targeting Arkansas’s Second District as part of a nationwide campaign to flood mailboxes with two million mail pieces reported to be “entirely negative,” Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA) Senior Communications Advisor Alice Stewart issued the following statement:
“The out-of-state Big Labor Bosses are back in Arkansas, this time on behalf of Joyce Elliott, whom they have endorsed and funded. We already know the AFL-CIO’s Working America is spending money for her in Arkansas. Senator Elliott suffered personal negative attacks against her during her primary campaign and at that time spoke out against them. I hope she will reiterate her objections now.
“Voters in the Second District deserve a serious debate on how we can create sustainable private sector jobs and get our fiscal house in order. They are looking for common sense solutions, not negative personal attacks by out-of-state big labor bosses committed to continuing the Obama-Pelosi agenda and passing out-of-touch legislation like card check.”
The AFL-CIO mail blitz comes just months after out-of-state unions spent millions of dollars in member’s dues to fund negative attacks during Arkansas’s Democratic Senate primary.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
AFL-CIO Targets AR-02 With ‘Entirely Negative’ Mail Blitz. “The AFL-CIO launched an ambitious grassroots campaign to energize its members on Monday, sending out 2M direct mail pieces around the country to union members…. The mail pieces are entirely negative, targeting the Republican in each race…. Democrats are counting on the AFL-CIO to motivate its members to turn out to the polls this fall.”
(Jeremy P. Jacobs, “AFL-CIO Drops 2M Negative Mail Pieces,” Hotline On Call, 9/13/2010)
Joyce Elliott Has Taken Over $100,000 From AFL-CIO-Related Unions. (Committees Who Gave To This Candidate, Federal Election Commission, Accessed 9/13/2010)
And The AFL-CIO’s Working America Has Already Spent Money On Elliott’s Behalf. (Committees Who Gave To This Candidate, Federal Election Commission, Accessed 9/13/2010; http://workingamerica.org/)
Meanwhile, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Says Card Check Will Return. “I think you’ll see the Employee Free Choice Act come up again…. I think it will be back to the floor because we’re working on strategies to get that done.” (“Newsmakers with Richard Trumka,” C-SPAN, 8/8/2010)
Elliott Supports Employee Free Choice ‘Absolutely.’ “As for the Employee Free Choice Act, proposed legislation that would make it easier to unionize, Elliott said she ‘absolutely supports the concept of employee free choice.’” (Michael Wickline, “Battles brewing in 2nd District,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 6/6/2010)
At 2009 AFL-CIO Rally, Elliot Spoke In Front Of Banner That Read, “Employee Free Choice Act NOW!” “There is so much of misinformation swirling around employee free choice. Because there are options in that bill. If the workers decide to sign a card and majority of them say ‘I want to be in the union’, then the union will be formed.”
(“AR: Senator Joyce Elliott,” Arkansas AFL-CIO, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPLa8hDjVGk, Posted 2/24/2009)
