Squeezy’s pick of Paul Vallas as his running mate was shocking to many.
Not because the policies and practices of the former head of Chicago’s public schools are that different from those of Squeezy.
In fact, one good look at Squeezy’s anti-unionism over the past five years reveals that he couldn’t have found a better mate if had gone to eHarmony.com.
It was shocking because it was such a bold, flat-out smack in the face of what is usually considered the Democrats’ electoral base.
SEIU can’t be happy with the betrayal by a candidate they spent millions on to get elected.
Our own IEA President Cinda Klickna has been reported to be less than thrilled with the choice of Vallas.
If Squeezy signs SB 1523 (as expected) it will be one more step in killing public employee pensions.
The coalition of state public employee unions, We Are One, will not be pleased.
But what should we expect? The Republican Party at the state level is firmly in the hands of the Tea Party. The strategy of the Democrats running state-wide is to position themselves an inch to the left of the Republicans. Illinois’ Democrats are barely centrist Republicans. It explains Quinn’s election over Tea Party Republican Bill Brady by barely more than 30,000 votes. Democrats forced working family voters to hold their noses and not elect the Tea Party. There was nothing else to do other than to stay home. Which many chose to do.
In Connecticut we can thank the Working Families Party for sending us Paul Vallas. The Working Families Party was formed by progressive labor, community leaders and activists and won control of Bridgeport’s board of education. Vallas, his credentials already challenged in court, saw the writing on the wall and headed west.
New York’s election of Bill de Blasio as the Mayor of New York, although not a labor-based third-party effort, showed that there is a broad base of support for a progressive agenda.
In North Carolina, church and labor organizations including the North Carolina affiliate of the NEA, have been on the march on Moral Mondays. Among their goals is to recapture the state’s legislature for progressives – not just for Democrats.
Back in June I suggested that the state’s labor leadership recognize that none of the candidates for governor represented us. I suggested a labor effort to draft Ralph Martire, who runs the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability.
The suggestion got local activists excited, but we heard nothing from the union leadership.
Now we have Quinn, Vallas and the Tea Party and the filing deadline for petitions a month away.
I think it is time to start talking about a labor and community-based Working Families Party for Illinois.
Fred Klonsky 
I am disappointed that there has been no organized effort to promote Ralph Martire as a candidate for governor. How can our union leaders be ignoring the need to have an alternative to the current candidates?
Has Karen Lewis expressed an opinion on the situation? Surely she’s not going to back Quinn with Vallas by his side, is she? And of course not only is Rauner a Republican, he’s a good friend of Mayor 1%. If Lewis could get behind Martire (or any other third partier) that would be the better part of 30,000 CTU members right there.
In a state completely controlled by Democrats, most of them exceedingly liberal, you are blaming Republicans for the state’s problems. Illinois Democrats are not centrist, if they were there would have been a pension resolution by now.
Where did I blame the Republicans for the state’s problems? Give me one example. You just make stuff up. Like that the Democrats are exceedingly liberal.
Why not simply put a gubernatorial candidate on the green party ballot line. That would mobilize an already existing voter base which is strongly pro labor.
Mike Madigan hates the Greens.