After endorsing Assemblyman Kansen Chu in the last three elections, Service Employees International Union Local 521 won’t support his bid for Santa Clara County Supervisor and will instead endorse former Sunnyvale Mayor Otto Lee.
The union represents nearly 12,000 county employees, making it a key endorsement in the race for Dave Cortese’s soon-to-be-vacated seat.
Mullissa Willette, the chair for SEIU 521’s South Bay Committee on Political Education, told Fly that Lee has supported the union’s push for a billionaire tax. The money from the tax would be reinvested in working families and communities of color.
“Our union will continue to bring forward candidates and elected officials who elevate public discourse and advocate for major socioeconomic change,” Willette said.
Lee said he believes SEIU 521 didn’t support Chu because of recent remarks he made after abstaining from a vote to place a measure on the November ballot to repeal Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 and reinstate affirmative action.
Chu was quoted in a translated article from the World Journal saying that, as a schools trustee, he saw many Hispanic parents were uninterested in their children’s education.
Backlash ensued, but Chu said the translation wasn’t accurate and the reporter inserted their own opinion. “People do make mistakes,” Lee said. “Hiding behind these excuses is what I find to be really unfortunate.”
Chu told Fly that he was disappointed that the local SEIU union didn’t endorse him.
“I don’t know what Otto has promised them,” he quipped.
The news especially came as a shock since Chu says he’s been advocating for sick leave for in-home support service workers, who are represented by another SEIU branch.
“My work has always been based on a simple belief that the income inequality is the greatest disparity to equal assets,” he said.
Seems like all the SEIU ever does is shake their fists at people and go on strike.
De they ever do anything that is, like, in the interest of the people they claim to represent and their families.
Has the SEIU, for example, have done anything about the crappy education system which miseducates the children of their members and holds them down?
Mr Chu, you are a thoughtless progressive who is almost always wrong and arrogant on top of it. Being in your presence for more than one hour a year pushes my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. You have done more damage with your good intentions than an outwardly evil person person.
All that being said, you are being shafted and it is not right.
In a time when too many politicians are weather-vanes going with the wind, I am proud to support Kansen Chu. Solid, principled leadership since Day 1.
http://www.michaeltsai.org
Good riddance! He was terrible in San Jose and at the State. Time for new people at the County level.