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Calif. AFL-CIO Backs Bustamante in Recall

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Hedging its political bets, the powerful California AFL-CIO voted Tuesday to endorse Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante for governor in case Gov. Gray Davis is ousted in the Oct. 7 recall election.

Organized labor has long been a part of Davis' core constituency, and the labor federation had already come out against the recall itself, but it threw its support behind Bustamante as a fall-back position. The results of the vote were revealed by delegates leaving a meeting at a Manhattan Beach hotel.

"We are going to beat the recall," said Ray Trujillo, Northern California regional director for the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.

Bustamante, the only major Democrat on the recall ballot, has campaigned under the slogan "No on recall, yes on Bustamante."

The state's powerful teachers union was among other labor groups that had previously endorsed the Bustamante option in case the recall succeeds.

The state AFL-CIO, an association of more than 1,300 union locals representing some 2.1 million workers in manufacturing, construction and other industries, has been especially close to Davis, even co-sponsoring the Democrat's inaugural festivities last year.

While the labor representatives were gathering, Republican front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger continued his campaign to shore up his GOP credentials on conservative talk radio.

"Let's make this clear: I'm a Republican, I'm a proud Republican from the first day I came to this country and I was so excited about getting away from socialism," he told host Eric Hogue on KTKZ-AM in Sacramento.

"I'm a Republican and I'm running as a Republican to be the next Republican governor."

The actor, who is seeking support from Republicans whose votes could be splintered among three major GOP candidates, launched the radio effort Monday and went on the offensive against Bustamante for the first time.

"It's like one newspaper pointed out, Bustamante is Gray Davis with a receding hairline and a mustache. It's the same person. Same philosophy," Schwarzenegger said Monday.

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