Two of New York’s political key labor unions didn’t put all of their chips on one party in the race for control of the state Senate.
And the gamble to diversify their political investments appears to have paid off for 1199SEIU and the Hotel Trades Council.
HTC, a small but influential labor union that has played pivotal rolls at the Capitol in recent years on issues like the legalization of casino gaming, worked with the Real Estate Board of New York to counter a well-funded campaign backed by Airbnb.
In that fight, the 41st Senate district became a proxy war over the new law restricting online advertising of multi-family dwellings in New York City. Airbnb’s super PAC targeted Republican Sen. Sue Serino, boosting Democrat Terry Gipson in the process.
The real-estate interests, plus HTC, backed a counter campaign that shored up Serino, who won re-election.
On Long Island, meanwhile, 1199 — a health-care workers union that was instrumental in the $15 minimum wage campaign — also displayed pragmatism. The union gave its endorsements to Democrats and Republicans in the state Senate, but also backed Republican Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon.
Hannon is routinely targeted by Democrats in presidential election years and this year faced Ryan Cronin. He won by a relatively comfortable margin. The union also backed Sen. Bill Larkin, a Republican who faced a challenge from Democrat Chris Eachus. Larkin won as well.
As 1199 President George Gresham said in July, “1199’s motto has always been, we didn’t create it, but we live by it, and that is we don’t have permanent friends and we don’t have permanent enemies, we have permanent interests,.”