Monday, February 25, 2008

37th Annual Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Conference

The 37th Annual Black and Puerto Rican legislative conference took place in the state capital on February 15-17 in Albany NY with the theme of the annual caucus weekend being” embracing A United Workforce.”
Pictured: Donald Afflick, President NY Chapter CBTU; Marvin Holland, Editor, Homestation Online; Sadie Sanders; Charles Jenkins, NY Chapter CBTU/TWU-Local 100; Sally Robinson (seated).

The annual conference is one the premiere networking and education opportunities for unions and their members. This year the Home Station joined the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) at the conference. There was a buzz of excitement in the air throughout the weekend as the ultra competitive race for the Democratic presidential candidate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was the talk of the weekend. As many of the New York states delegates and super delegates were in attendance (many of them Clinton supporters), the conversations centered around the Obama surge and his emerging front runner status.

The other major political talk was the Democrats opportunity to take control of the Senate for the first time since 1965 (which only lasted 9 months). By gaining just two more seats in the Senate, the Democratic Party can achieve the holy trinity of NY state politics by controlling both the legislative houses and the executive branch in the state of NY. It has been over a century since the Democratic Party has controlled the senate, assembly and governors offices. Chances look good to achieve this milestone, as some long time republican strongholds in upstate have shown strong signs of going democratic in this year’s elections. The Home Station staff met with officers from CBTU NYC Chapter while in Albany to prepare for the 2009 New York City elections.

Charles Jenkins, recently elected 2nd Vice President of their NYC Chapter, and a Vice Chairman in TWU Local 100, was on hand and pointed out that 2009 is huge year for New York City politics as you have the mayor, comptroller, public advocate and four borough presidents. Then you have 36 of 51 term limited city council seats, so 2009 will be major for local politics. Over the next couple of months, we will begin to break down and analyze the races for 2009.

[UPDATE: Since this article was originally posted, the democrats have picked up another seat, and are just one seat shy of taking over the Senate majority.]

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