UFT makes final election day push

Miller Photography

UFT President Michael Mulgrew meets with UFT volunteers on Election Day.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew on Nov. 2 worked the polls with more than a dozen teachers from PS 186 outside the school in Bellerose, Queens, where Tony Avella is challenging a Republican incumbent state senator, as the union made a final push for its candidates in hotly contested city and statewide races.

In the statewide contests, the union concentrated its energy on the race for state comptroller, in which it backed Thomas DiNapoli, and the race for state attorney general, in which it backed Eric Schneiderman. The UFT did not make an endorsement in the governor’s race.

Besides Avella, the UFT also made a full-court press for U.S. Congressman Michael McMahon, who is running for re-election in Staten Island and Brooklyn, and for Joseph Addabbo in his State Senate race in Queens.

On Election Day, the chapter leaders and members from PS 107, PS 226 and PS 186 in Queens were among the UFT volunteers who handed out leaflets at polling stations and transportation hubs in the 11th Senate District, where Avella, a former city councilman, is trying to unseat longtime State Senator Frank Padavan.

“A win for Avella means greater support to schools and help for the union from Albany with budget and policy issues,” said Hannah Fiasconaro, the PS 186 chapter leader. “Because we can’t have the same mess in Albany again this year.”

Back in Manhattan, working the homeward-bound rush-hour crowd at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Mulgrew and dozens of UFT volunteers joined Congressman McMahon in urging commuters to vote for the incumbent.

Among those with Mulgrew was AFT President Randi Weingarten, who was completing three days of campaigning in Pennsylvania and New York State. “We need to keep out of office the forces that created the recession,” she said. “The irony is that the same people who spawned the anxiety and caused the economy’s troubles are now trying to benefit from it.”

In the weeks leading up to Nov. 2, UFT members packed the phone banks in all five borough offices. The Queens borough office had 110 people working the phones on one evening alone last week.

“People have been working very hard and doing their best, and hopefully the results will show that at the end of the night,” said Paul Egan, the UFT’s director of legislation and political action.