All Boeing Engineers are members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)union. As part of an exhaustive 2 year effort, Speea has rated candidates in the geographical areas in which it operates. Although Speea doesn't make endorsements, it does publish rankings. And its #1 ranked candidate to represent its workers is Democrat Darcy Burner....
Boeing's Engineering Union Ranks Darcy Burner as #1 Federal Candidate for Aerospace Workers
All Boeing Engineers and many technical workers in Washington are members of the SPEEA Union, which is also part of the IFPTE Union. For the last two years, elected members of Speea-IFPTE Local 2001 have been at work, developing a methodology and questions to be asked of candidates running in the 2006 elections. This effort was assigned to the Speea-IFPTE Northwest Legislative and Public Affairs Committee (L&PA).
In order to fairly evaluate candidates, all candidates were asked the same list of questions. The questions were designed to determine a candidate's knowledge and understanding of the issues as they relate to aerospace workers. The questions were based on council motions, negotiation surveys, and research by the L&PA committee. Two ratings were determined for each candidate, one based on a personal interview, and one based on a written response to question. This was a very thorough review process as noted in the Speea Spotlite magazine:
"I was very impressed with the thought process our committee used to interview and rate the candidates," said Judy Morgan, Chair of the L&PA Committee. "It was as scientific as we could make it".
Because Speea-IFPTE member are from all political parties, Speea- IFPTE does not make endorsements. However Speea-IFPTE does publish the candidate questions, responses, and the resultant rankings, summarized below.
Clear winners in the rankings were Darcy Burner #1, Rick Larsen #2, and tied for #3 were Peter Goldmark and Adam Smith. Darcy's scoring the number one position in this non-partisan ranking is a clear and unambiguous confirmation from working class Americans that she represent their values. (see my blog for actual numerical ranking values)
Darcy is currently under a full blown attack by the NRCC which is rabidly trying to mislead the public into thinking that she isn't a good fit for the middle class; the Speea-IFPTE rankings indicate otherwise. Help Darcy fight back against the NRCC's deceptive and misleading ad campaign by donating to her campaign today (see KOS's netroots candidates list).
I'm sure you've all seen this photo of Dave Reichert and George Bush joined at the hip, exiting AF1. But consider who designed and built the airplane they are exiting from; Boeing Aerospace workers. And as the Boeing Speea-IFPTE rankings show, Darcy Burner is their top ranked candidate. Meanwhile, Dave Reichert scored a 0 in this same ranking, by being so arrogant that he refused to even participate. What message does this send to Dave Reichert's Boeing constituents?
Dave Reichert's abscence from the rankings is notable, especially since the Boeing Renton Plant is on his home turf of the 8th CD. Since Dave Reichert maintains a full congressional office in both Bellevue and Washington, it is hard to understand why neither he nor his staff felt they had the time to even fill out the written questionnaire provided to them by Speea-IFPTE.
On the other hand, since Dave Reichert freely admitted that he votes as directed by the RNC majority whip (turn on your TV to a local Seattle TV station and see a video of Dave Reichert saying so for yourself), it would have been somewhat pointless for him to publish a position in the questionarre, as he has no positions, he is a rubber stamp for the RNC.
Also notably absent from the rankings was Republican Cathy McMorris who also has Boeing facilities within her congressional district.
In the overall rankings, both Maria Cantwell and Jim McDermott had lower scores as they weren't available for the interview portion of the rankings.
Although Mike McGavick fully participated in both the interview and questionnaire part of the ranking process, he was only able to claw his way into 7th place. Although Mike McGavick did beat Maria Cantwell on the total score, he was handily beaten by Maria Cantwell in the written questionnaire portion. Mike McGavick scored poorly on his written questionnaire, ranking lowest of all respondents.
(P.S. Don't expect to read about this in the Seattle Times)