by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Randy White recently made a bold prediction.
“The fire fighters will put the next mayor in office,” he said.
As the president of the Jacksonville Fire Fighters Association, a labor group representing about 1,000 fire fighters in Duval County, he could have a legitimate claim.
Local labor unions have long played an influential role in city elections. In 1999, 17 of 21 candidates endorsed by the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters were elected. Eight of 11 candidates endorsed by the Jacksonville lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police were successful.
While the endorsement of a 1,000-member group may not sound like all that many guaranteed votes, the true number can be many times that. An FOP endorsement and its influence on other voters goes beyond its 2,500 members, says local president David Stevens.
“You have the families of the officers,” he said. “You have people who look at what law enforcement is doing and who they’re supporting. Plus, you have a work force that will help with signs and appear at functions with the candidates. There’s a lot more than the FOP endorsement.”
Mike Hightower is a 35-year veteran of politics and has operated in different capacities on various campaigns through the years. He is currently finance co-chair for John Peyton’s mayoral campaign.
“To me, if you’re going to be in political office, if you’re going to be involved in public policy, I think it’s important you understand what their issues are and where you’re coming from,” said Hightower. “The first thing I do when I get a candidate is say, ‘When do we go talk to the police and the firemen?’”
So how does an aspiring politician gain the coveted endorsement from these two local labor unions? First, know the issues facing the police and fire fighters and be ready to fight for their causes. Second, give Stevens and White a call.
“On the political process, people typically contact us wanting our endorsements,” said Stevens. “Sometimes we’ll go out and seek a candidate if there’s a particular office that we’re not real thrilled with the job being done.”
Incumbents who have been union-friendly in the past generally get the nod.
“The known candidates — candidates with whom we have a good relationship — we certainly ask them if they’re going to run again,” said Larry Osborne, business agent for the Jacksonville Fire Fighters Association. “We wouldn’t even try to fool somebody else and say we’re going to screen them. Open seats and things like that, they’ll call us. Friends of theirs with whom we’ve dealt before will come to us. Other public officials and business people will bring a candidate by. So it’s a mix.”
Like any special interest group, the police and fire fighters want friends in high places that can be trusted to make union-friendly decisions. While they are realistic enough not to expect union shills, they do expect their issues to be given serious consideration.
“Everybody likes to say they support law enforcement,” said Stevens. “Any candidate would be crazy not to. But when you pin them down to certain questions, you can kind of find out. Plus, some of them have track records. That doesn’t mean they’ll always vote for us, but are they willing to listen to our issues. That’s important. We know that candidates aren’t going to agree with us on every issue but it is important they at least listen to us and have an open door.”
Added Osborne: “Contrary to popular opinion, [candidates endorsed by the JFFA] haven’t necessarily always voted for us because that’s just almost unheard of. Even the wealthiest lobbyists just don’t get everything all the time.”
To get a feel for the candidates, both the Jacksonville Fire Fighters Association and the FOP conduct interviews.
“Let’s take the mayor’s race, for example,” said Stevens. “We like to call all the candidates in on the same day. We interview them. It’s not an inquisition. We ask them some pointed questions — and not all of our issues are related to law enforcement — we want to find out just how knowledgeable these candidates are in different areas. Especially when you’re talking about a mayoral candidate. They have to know a lot about a lot. The interviews typically last between 30 minutes to an hour. We will make a recommendation that day if we interview all the candidates in the race. Then, of course, it has to go to our members.”
Like the police, the fire fighters look past their specific concerns and rate each candidate on his or her ability to operate in government.
“Besides just fire fighter issues, we seek a lot of stability and experience in government and the ability just to run the government in times that are somewhat frightening to everybody,” said Osborne. “So we’re going to be looking for somebody that literally looks a little bit, on a local level, like a commander in chief. If things got as bad as they could be, it looks like they’re in charge. That’s going to be a big part of it — stability.”
Neither the FOP nor the JFFA has endorsed any of the current mayoral candidates, nor will they indicate who they may endorse. It’s early, they say.
Still candidates in all races seem to be aware of the importance of the union support. Stevens has met or spoken with all the candidates for mayor. White receives calls daily from various political hopefuls.
Hightower warns that unions deserve more than lip service when it comes to campaign promises.
“I think what you will find is that while the endorsement is important, for them to trust what you say is equally important,” he said. “I will tell you there are a number of endorsements who have reneged. They very much are men of their word. If you say this it the way it is going to be, they trust you.”
Stevens modified Hightower’s definition of “trust” slightly. While the FOP may take a candidate at his or her word, they include a safety feature in their interview process, which could be helpful in case a candidate does renege.
“We videotape our interviews,” said Stevens. “We do want to see how they handle the pressure a little bit, plus there may be some things they tell us we want to remind them of later.”
While endorsement is considered crucial to a campaign, it is not necessarily a clincher. In 1995, Jake Godbold was given the nod by the Jacksonville Fire Fighters Association over a cast of contenders.
“Fire fighters have a fierce loyalty to former mayor Godbold,” said Osborne. “Mayor Godbold felt about fire fighters 20 years ago the way everybody purports to feel now.”
Godbold eventually lost to John Delaney, who will conclude his second term as mayor next year. While Delaney proved that union endorsements aren’t nails in opponents’ coffins, statistics show that they certainly help.
The Jacksonville Fire Fighters Association eventually endorsed Delaney in 1999 when he ran unopposed, but tensions appear to run high between the mayor and the fire fighters.
“We seem to be behind every other City agency last year in the cost of living,” said White. “We were well below every department. We would like to be where everybody else is, at least.”
It’s an issue between the union and Delaney, says White.
As for the future, both the Jacksonville Fire Fighters Association and the FOP are reticent to commit to any mayoral candidates yet.
“We’re not going to come out yet on who we’re going to endorse,” said White. “We’re probably going to look at City Council first. When it gets to the bigger election, or what we think is the biggest election in the history here, which is the mayor’s race, we’re holding off on that one. We’re not sure everybody is in this race. I don’t think everybody is in, personally. That’s one we’re going to hold off on and look at the candidates and see who has the most experience level and maybe past record with us.”
Added Stevens: “I can tell you, we won’t wait for qualifying on the mayor’s race and the sheriff’s race if we endorse. They don’t have to qualify until February of next year. We’re not going to wait that long to endorse for either race. We do want to get the word out, if you are interested in the FOP endorsement, you need to contact us. If we’re seeking somebody, we’ll contact them.”