By SHERRY HALBROOK
Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton, both Democrats, came up winners when the PEF Executive Board sat down at its May meeting to make its picks for president of the United States and the US Senate.
Gore also has the backing of the AFL-CIO and PEF’s international affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union.

In addition to those strong recommendations, the PEF Board considered the recommendations of the union’s Statewide Political Action Committee for Gore and Clinton.

And, for the first time, it had another important source of member guidance — a survey of PEF’s COPE (Committee on Political Education) contributors.

“We sent a survey out to all of our COPE contributors in early May,” said PEF Vice President Ken Brynien, who heads the union’s political-action efforts.

Although a substantial percentage of PEF members are Republican, 79 percent of the COPE contributors who responded to the survey wanted the union to endorse Gore.

And 80 percent supported Clinton in her bid for the Senate. Clinton received a very warm welcome at her appearance as a guest speaker at the 1999 PEF convention in Rochester. She also reviewed and spoke at the Albany Labor Day Parade last year and dedicated the former home of 19th Century labor leader Kate Mullaney in Troy as a national historic site.

“We think PEF should go out of its way to ask COPE contributors for their opinions about endorsements for national office, since it’s their money we would be contributing to national campaigns,” Brynien said. “I will be asking COPE members their opinions on congressional endorsements and possibly other campaign issues in the coming months.”

Federal law prohibits the union from contributing members’ dues to candidates for national office. Brynien said many COPE members took the time to write notes on their surveys explaining their choices and thanking the union for asking.

“The survey seemed to be very much appreciated,” Brynien said. “And the COPE members expressed some very strong feelings, especially on the Senate race.”

In addition to Gore and Bush, PEF also endorsed the Rev. Rowland Gaines in his bid as the Democratic candidate for the state Assembly in District 5 (Suffolk County). Gaines has been on the staff of Assembly Member Paul Harenberg, a Democrat, who has chosen not to run for re-election in that district. Gaines is the husband of PEF Region 12 Coordinator Ruth Gaines.

The board will make the bulk of PEF’s candidate endorsements at its meeting in late August. Meanwhile, the union’s PACs are interviewing, researching and recommending candidates for endorsement.

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