Washington, Wilkes nab critical labor nod

Political neophyte Jody Washington was just another candidate running in the Lansing City Council’s 1st Ward alongside former Rep. Lynne Martinez and former Council President Harold Leeman. That was five weeks ago.

The backing of the Greater Lansing Labor Council and the UAW CAP Council has changed everything. Now, with only five weeks before the August primary, Washington needs to be considered a front-runner with Martinez in the only real competitive race on Lansing’s August ballot.

Washington, a member of SEIU Health Care, wowed the union brass at a candidate cattle call earlier this month with her deep union roots and a vision that stood out, according to Mike Green of the UAW CAP Council.

Her family is the United Nations of organized labor. Her parents and grandmother were all both UAW stewards. Her son and his wife are schoolteachers and members of the Michigan Education Association. Her husband was a union representative when he worked with the Michigan State Police. Her daughter works with the MEA spin-off organization that handles health insurance for school districts, the entity known as the Michigan Education Special Services Association, or MESSA.

It also didn’t hurt that Washington’s daughter is engaged to Thomas Morgan, a political consultant for Byrum Fisk Communications, which does work for just about every union in the universe. Remember, Morgan came inches away from winning a seat on the Lansing Community College board against the far better known Larry Meyer, a notable accomplishment in its own right.

Morgan downplayed the significance of his involvement, however. From his very biased vantage point, Washington is kicking butt and taking names at the door, her job and community volunteer work aside.

"I cracked open a few doors for Jody, and she opened them the rest of the way," Morgan said. "It’s my understanding that folks in labor — much like the people she’s been meeting at the doors — have been very impressed with her dedication to siding with regular people instead of corporate special interests. 

How significant is the backing of the Labor Council and the UAW CAP Council for the Lansing City Council?

"I’d rather have them with me than against me," said Todd Cook, political consultant for Main Street Strategies.

The unions bring a lot of things to the table — money, organization, volunteers and some bragging rights. Lansing is still a union town, and the UAW endorsement, by itself, is worth a few hundred votes in the 1st Ward.

With six candidates on the ballot, a few hundred votes puts her in pole position. One union official modestly told me about the unions’ backing, "Yeah, we’ve won more than we’ve lost."

"Clearly, it will come down to her and Lynne Martinez unless things change dramatically in the next four weeks," Cook said.

It should shock no one that Derrick Quinney and Carol Wood got the union’s nod in their respective at-large seat re-election efforts.

Unions actually should erect a statue in Quinney’s honor for holding the line on his "no" vote against the City Market project, where he stood tall for project labor agreements. Head chef Virg Bernero and his allies were roasting Quinney over an open fire for that vote.

A’Lynne Robinson went the other way on that vote. As such, the unions are going the other way on her endorsement. Tried-and-true union guy Jason Wilkes is getting the union’s support in their mano-a-mano showdown in November in what is quickly looking to be a complete setup.

Wilkes, a UAW member, has carried the organized labor flag for years, having helped organize a City Hall rally for the Fraternal Order of Police during contract negotiations a couple years ago.

"Show support for our Lansing police officers," Wilkes wrote on the Facebook organizing page Team Lansing. "Lansing can not afford to lose any officers as crime is rising!"

And that’s only Wilkes’ most recent trip to the well to carry water for organized labor. His efforts have not gone unnoticed.

"We keep track of who is doing what," Green said. "We want to make sure that if they’re talking the talk, they’re walking the walk."

In other words, Wilkes could have shown up to the Labor Council screening in a tutu and a clown nose and walked away with its enthusiastic backing. 

Was it coincidence that Wilkes and Washington were the among those attending the neighborhood-led Coalition looking to slam the breaks on the medical marijuana shops in town? Could they be showing up a lot more events together?

It’s hard to say. 

It’s easy to see that with labor backing W-2, both could be putting a hand on the Bible come Jan. 1.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the MIRS Newsletter. His column appears weekly. He’s at melinn@citypulse.com.)