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Friday, May 30, 2008
The Georgia AFL-CIO endorses Rand Knight in Democratic race for U.S. Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If it isn’t there already, the Democratic race for U.S. Senate is about to be thrown into a cocked hat.
Richard Ray, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO, says his labor organization will endorse Rand Knight, a little-known ecologist from Atlanta, in the primary contest.
The AFL-CIO, the most influential labor group in the state, is to make the announcement today.
“I’m sure it will be a surprise to a lot of people that the young man has come out of nowhere,” Ray said this morning. “Rand is a very passionate young man, very much in tune with the issues that the labor unions have on their agenda, such as health care for everyone.”
Ray also said that his membership was looking for something different. Knight, 36, has little money — as of March 30, he had $17,971 in cash on hand, and a debt that topped $45,000. This is his first political contest. But Ray said union members were impressed by Knight’s grass-roots efforts to meet people throughout the state.
Several Democratic candidates, including Atlanta attorney Jim Martin and former TV journalist Dale Cardwell competed for the endorsement. The AFL-CIO provides only a limited amount of campaign funding, but its networking system has served as the skeleton for many statewide races.
The endorsement of Knight is a blow to the Martin campaign, which has now raised the most money in the Democratic race, and good news to DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones.
Martin, 62, has the longest pedigree of any Democrat in the race — having served as a state lawmaker and commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources under both Govs. Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 2006.
Martin entered the race only in March, at the urging of Democratic activists here and in Washington — who are worried about the impact the nomination of Jones might have on the rest of the ticket.
Union workers and African-Americans are two of the most important constituencies in a Democratic primary. Strategists were already worried about the Martin campaign’s ability to attract the endorsements of African-American political leaders in the state.
Fallout from the Obama-Clinton fight at the national level has caused many black Democratic leaders to stay on the sideline in the U.S. Senate contest.
