New AFSCME Mailings in New Hampshire

Remember the anti-Obama mailings circulated in Iowa on behalf of Hillary by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)? Well, the largest public employee and health care workers union in the United States has struck again in New Hampshire. This time, the rank-and-file is not having it and has gone public with a letter recently sent to the AFSCME president. Here are a couple excerpts:

We are writing to protest in the strongest terms the negative campaign that AFSCME is conducting against Barack Obama. We do not believe that such a wholesale assault on one of the great friends of our union was ever contemplated when the International Executive Board (IEB) made its decision to endorse Hillary Clinton.

In fact, when the vote to make a primary endorsement was taken by the IEB, there appeared to be widespread agreement that we had a strong field of Democratic candidates all of whom had made a very positive impression on the IEB Screening Committee. The argument for endorsing Hillary Clinton was not that her positions were better than those of the other candidates or that she would be the better president for working families, but rather that she was the clear frontrunner, the most likely primary victor, and the strongest general election candidate.

...We were therefore shocked and appalled to learn that our union - through “independent expenditures”–is squandering precious resources to wage a costly and deceptive campaign to oppose Barack Obama. As Barack’s standing in the polls has soared, according to numerous press reports AFSCME has spent untold dollars in Iowa and New Hampshire to send out mailings and run radio ads whose sole purpose is to undercut his candidacy. And now AFSCME has even registered a website with the explicit purpose of “opposing Barack Obama.”

While we would not approve of attacks on any of the Democratic candidates in this race, all of whom have good relationships with our union, it is worth noting that AFSCME has chosen to attack only one of those candidates, Barack Obama.

...We are calling on you to take whatever action that is within your legal purview to immediately end AFSCME’s attack campaign against Sen. Obama. In the event that you are not able to legally compel these staff membersto cease these actions, we are calling on you to immediately take action to discontinue such independent expenditures in order to ensure that no further attacks occur.

One reason for the new mailing - Obama is now up 10 points in New Hampshire.