American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
| American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Type: | Labor union |
| Top official: | Lee Saunders |
| Year founded: | 1932 |
| Website: | Official website |
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is a labor union in the United States. As of April 2015, it represented over 1.6 million employees, primarily in local and state government and in the health care industry. AFSCME is part of the AFL-CIO.[1] The labor union was originally founded in 1932 as the Wisconsin State Administrative, Clerical, Fiscal and Technical Employees Association.[2]
Leadership
The leadership of AFSCME consists of a president, secretary-treasurer, and an executive board. The president of AFSCME International is Lee Saunders, first elected in 2012. Gerald McEntee, an influential political player in the Democratic Party, preceded Saunders.[3][4][5][6]
Political activity
As of February 2015, AFSCME was the third largest organizational contributor to political campaigns, having donated more than $90 million up to that point since 1990.[7]
2016 elections
2016 presidential endorsement
✓ American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic primary in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[8]
- See also: Endorsements for Hillary Clinton
2012 elections
According to OpenSecrets.org, AFSCME spent $64,764,312 in the 2012 election cycle.[9]
Endorsed candidates
In the 2012 election cycle, the AFSCME supported the following candidates:[10]
- Barack Obama
- Ron Barber
- Marc Veasey
- Janice Hahn
- Sherrod Brown
- Suzanne Bonamici
- Chris Donovan
- Pete Gallego
- Kathleen Hochul
- Mike McIntyre
- Christie Vilsack
- Tammy Baldwin
- Alfred Lawson, Jr.
- Patrick Murphy
- Emanuel Cleaver
- Jim Costa
- Elizabeth Warren
- Joe Courtney
- Frederica Wilson
- Cheri Bustos
- Joe Donnelly
- Heidi Heitkamp
- Chris Murphy
- Bill Nelson
- Ami Bera
- Kathryn Boockvar
- Mark Critz
- Martin Heinrich
- Tim Kaine
- Gary McDowell
- Sal Pace
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
- Ann Kirkpatrick
- John Barrow
- Xavier Becerra
- Shelley Berkley
- Howard Berman
- Sanford Bishop
- Timothy Bishop
- Earl Blumenauer
Expenditures
| Top 5 largest American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees expenditures in 2012[11] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Party | State | Office | For | Against | Total | Desired Result |
| Barack Obama |  |
N/A | President | $22,927 | $0 | $22,927 |  |
| Ron Barber | |
AZ | House | $21,000 | $0 | $21,000 | |
| Marc Veasey | |
TX | House | $20,000 | $0 | $20,000 | |
| Janice Hahn | |
CA | House | $20,000 | $0 | $20,000 | |
| Sherrod Brown | |
OH | Senate | $17,920 | $0 | $17,920 | |
2010
Ballot measure activity
According to MapLight, AFSCME was the 11th largest donor to the ballot proposition campaigns for the November 2, 2010 ballot.[12]
| Ballot measure | Description | AFSCME position | AFSCME donation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposition 14 | Elections | Opposed | $50,000 |
| Proposition 22 | Gov't finance | Supported | $3,000 |
| Proposition 23 | Environment | Opposed | $75,000 |
| Proposition 24 | Taxes | Supported | $100,000 |
| Proposition 25 | Gov't finance | Supported | $1,275,543 |
| Proposition 26 | Taxes | Opposed | $135,000 |
| Proposition 27 | Redistricting | Supported | $1,250,000 |
Other measures
- Supported California Proposition 13, Seismic Retrofitting (June 2010)
- Supported California Proposition 15, Biennial Lobbyist Fee and Public Campaign Funding Measure (June 2010)
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ AFSCME,"About," accessed April 10, 2014
- ↑ AFSCME,"History," accessed April 10, 2015
- ↑ The Center for Public Integrity,"Party Lines: Organizational donors, Profiles of the top organizational donors in 2003 and 2004," May 26, 2005
- ↑ Illinois Periodicals Online, "The rise of AFSCME as public employee union with clout," March 22, 1991
- ↑ Bloomberg, "Democrats' Allies Use Undisclosed Dollars to Target Republicans," July 21, 2006
- ↑ AFSCME,"AFSCME Takes Largest AFL-CIO Delegation to the Democratic National Convention," July 22, 2004
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org,"Center for Responsive Politics totals," accessed February 25, 2015
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "Hillary Clinton Wins AFSCME Endorsement," October 23, 2015
- ↑ Open Secrets, "AFSCME - summary," accessed December 16, 2013
- ↑ Open Secrets, "AFSCME - recipients," accessed December 16, 2013
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedacs - ↑ MapLight, "$147 Million Spent on California's Nov. Ballot Measures," November 5, 2010
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