The AFL-CIO spent $500,000 on Utah candidates in the 1990 election and expects to spend more than that this year, local president Ed Mayne says.
The union also intends to endorse its favorites and urge the defeat of those perceived as unfavorable to organized labor.Mayne said Geneva Steel Chairman Joe Cannon, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, may be a Republican but is strong on trade issues. "He understands the unfair trading field we're faced with."
Rep. Wayne Owens, considered the Democratic frontrunner in the Senate race, is a known quantity, Mayne added. But "to say we always get along is not a true statement."
He described millionaire Doug Anderson, another Democrat running for Senate, as formidable. "I don't even want to speculate on what we'll do in that race," he said.
In the governor's race, Mayne said the union believes Republican Dixie Minson was fair to labor when she was on the state Industrial Commission, but she remains "unknown in this equation."
And he said attorney Pat Shea, who hasn't even announced yet, is the Democratic frontrunner. "Shea is a proven commodity. He'll raise the intellectual level of the debate," Mayne said. (Attorney Stewart) "Hanson's been campaigning for a year, but he's getting no respect.
In the 1st Congressional District race, Mayne said he thinks voters should reject Republican Rep. Jim Hansen's re-election bid.