AFL-CIO: CAMPBELL IS THE CANDIDATE FOR LOUISIANA'S FAMILIES
- September 17, 2007

           BATON ROUGE – After considering his long record in the Louisiana Senate and as a Public Service Commissioner, the Louisiana AFL-CIO has thrown its support behind Foster Campbell in the governor’s race.

           "Campbell’s endorsement was decided last week at a meeting of AFL-CIO-affiliated unions," said Louisiana AFL-CIO President Louis Reine.

           “Unions representing the building trades, public employees, teachers, fire fighters and police officers, transportation workers and others all agreed that Foster Campbell is the best candidate for working people and their families,” Reine said. “He has had an outstanding career as a consumer advocate fighting for workers’ rights.”

           Reine said that Campbell is the only candidate to talk about giving tax relief to consumers without reducing vital services.

           “Foster Campbell’s plan to tax foreign oil is an idea whose time has come in Louisiana,” Reine said. “Our state has been bled dry by the foreign-dominated oil companies, and it’s time for them to pay their fair share. Under his plan, we can restore our coastline, rebuild our transportation infrastructure, improve our health care, protect and educate our citizens, and at the same time give all workers a pay raise by abolishing the state income tax.”

           Reine said that the economic and social policies of the Republican Party and Congressman Bobby Jindal have been disastrous for Louisiana.

           “Louisiana workers got shut out of the rebuilding effort after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita because President Bush suspended rules requiring fair pay,” Reine said. “Bobby Jindal did not stick up for our people, and as a result the work has gone to low-paid immigrant workers.

           “When Bobby Jindal ran the Department of Health and Hospitals, he cut his budget by shutting down local clinics that many of our citizens depended on for their health care” Reine said. “Foster Campbell will restore our clinics. He’ll make sure that we have a public teaching hospital to train a new generation of health-care professionals.”

           “Under Bush and Jindal, Louisiana has never received the education funding we need to meet the rules forced on us by the federal government,” Reine said. “Foster Campbell will make sure our schools have the resources they need to give our children the education they deserve.

           “On issue after issue, Foster Campbell is right and Bobby Jindal is wrong,” said Reine. “The working people of Louisiana are proud to endorse him for governor.”

           In the days to come, Reine said, the unions represented by the Louisiana AFL-CIO will explain their own reasons for endorsing Campbell.

           “Every trade and profession represented by the AFL-CIO has a story to tell,” Reine said, “We will explain to the people of Louisiana just what is at stake in this election. Once the people understand the issues, we believe there will be a grassroots movement for Foster Campbell that will confound all the pollsters and experts who believe this race has already been determined.”