Rand Wilson Launches Campaign for State Auditor



Long-time union organizer and political activist Rand Wilson has announced his campaign for Auditor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Wilson, an unenrolled voter, is running under the new Working Families political designation.

My top priority is to get government to hold big corporations more accountable for the good jobs that our communities need, said Wilson. Corporate tax giveaways and privatization schemes have wasted scarce resources and not delivered the full-time jobs or quality public services that working families should have.

Beyond that, I'sm running to build support for a new Working Families Party here in Massachusetts that will refocus the political agenda on the bread-and-butter economic issues that both major political parties have too often ignored, added Wilson.

As an independent candidate, Wilson has to collect 5,000 valid signatures from registered voters on nominating petitions by August 1 to secure a spot on the November ballot. Under state law, political designations must win 3 percent of the vote for a statewide office to gain official party status.

The nascent Working Families organizing committee decided to run a candidate in this election because the Mass Ballot Freedom Campaign has gathered enough signatures for a November referendum to allow cross-endorsement voting. If passed, it would change the election laws so that an independent, issue-based party 's8211; like a potential Working Families Party 's8211; could support major-party candidates on its own ballot line.

With Ballot Freedom, citizens could vote for a Democrat or Republican on the Working Families Party ballot line, showing their support for our party'ss pro-worker platform. Although banned in Massachusetts in 1912, seven other states still allow cross-endorsements. The Working Families Party has been the margin of victory in several tight electoral races in New York State.

Massachusetts voters want candidates and parties who will get something done. But with our current law, where a vote for an independent candidate could throw the election to someone you really don'st want. We don'st want to spoil elections or waste our votes on someone who can'st win, said John Murphy, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 122 and a national union vice president. Murphy is chairman of Wilson'ss campaign.

If Ballot Freedom passes, a vote for a Working Families candidate who is also running on another party'ss ticket would send a message -- to the candidate and the party -- that people want action on issues that are important to working families, said Murphy. If Rand can get three percent of the vote, the Working Families Party will have a place on the ballot in 2008.

For too long, political quicksand has kept the issues that really matter to our state'ss working families from moving forward on Beacon Hill, said Mimi Ramos, head organizer of the Boston chapter of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and Wilson'ss campaign treasurer. Rand is running to shine a spotlight on the status quo politics that are holding our state back, to refocus our political agenda on the economic issues that matter most to working families, and to give voters a meaningful choice on Election Day.

Wilson has worked as a union organizer and labor communicator for more than twenty-five years. He is best known for helping to spur formation of the Massachusetts community-labor coalition Jobs with Justice in the early 1990s. As founding director, Wilson spearheaded efforts to support legislation for universal health care and against international trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO.

Wilson'ss organizing and communications experience in Massachusetts led to a job in Washington, DC working for the Teamsters union. There he coordinated communications during national contract negotiations and a 15-day strike at United Parcel Service in 1997.

More recently, Wilson worked for the AFL-CIO'ss Office of Investment on a campaign to oppose the Bush Administration'ss plan to privatize Social Security. Wilson organized actions across the country exposing the conflict of interest created by the financial services industry'ss support for privatizing Social Security while it managed trillions of dollars in worker'ss retirement assets.

Wilson has written and lectured widely about contract campaigns, strikes, health care reform, and strategies to build workers's political power. He is president of the Center for Labor Education and Research, and on the board of directors of the ICA Group, the Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF), and the Center for the Study of Public Policy. He is 53 years old and lives in Somerville, MA.

Currently, Wilson is the organizing director of IUE-CWA Local 201, a union of General Electric and other manufacturing workers in Lynn, MA. He will take a leave of absence to run for Auditor.

Rand has a spent a lifetime fighting for the rights of working people all across the state, said Dick Monks, an organizer for Operating Engineers Local 877. I admire his decision to run now because it'ss not some symbolic effort 's8211; it'ss about advancing political reform in Massachusetts so that working families will benefit more from economic growth. It'ss the kind of campaign -- and he'ss the kind of candidate -- that I'sm proud to support.

Wilson received his first political endorsement on June 24 from the United Electrical Workers Northeast Region.

For a more complete candidate bio, photos, news clips, and background information, please contact the Wilson for Working Families Campaign at 617 623-8405.





Rand Wilson Launches Campaign for State Auditor