Committee on Political Education (COPE)
Every year, the affiliated union organizations that comprise the New Jersey State AFL-CIO vote on which election candidates to endorse based on voting records and working family issues. The New Jersey labor movement has a proud history of supporting both Democratic and Republican candidates who support working families. Working in partnership with the AFL-CIO Political Department, New Jersey’s Central Labor Councils, Building Trades Councils, and affiliated local unions, the Committee on Political Education (COPE) makes every effort to educate union members and their families about these endorsements and why they were made.
Labor Candidates Program
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO has built the country’s best Labor Candidates Program achieving 608 union members election victories since 1997. Now, union members represent working families in public offices within the State Senate and Assembly, on County Freeholder Boards, in our towns as Mayors, Aldermen, Committee and Council members, Fire Commissioners, and on School Boards.
The Labor Candidates School and Non-Partisan Training Seminars are the cornerstones of this successful political program. Election experts instruct union members about fund-raising and election law, research, message development, public speaking, media relations, voter contact, volunteer recruitment, targeting, and get-out-the-vote. Participants are awarded full scholarships by the New Jersey State AFL-CIO. To learn more, visit: Labor Candidates Page. Become a Labor Candidate. Resolution establishing Labor Candidate requirements
2009 Labor Candidates School
Labor 2009 Election Toolkit
Local union leadership and Labor 2009 Coordinators can access sample local union letters in support of endorsed candidates, sample fliers, phone scripts, labor-to-labor walks scripts, the Labor 2009 election campaign calendar, Labor 2009 slideshow and more. To request access call John Shea at (609) 989-8730.
Click on our Toolbox for
more information
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO thanks the thousands of rank-and-file volunteers who knock on doors, staff the phones, distribute fliers in the workplace, stuff envelopes, and register voters in support of working families’ legislative and political agenda.
To volunteer for Labor 2009, please contact your local union leadership or click here
