An Internal Debate

Longtime Border Patrol agents in San Diego still remember the days when they would come to work with fireball candies in their mouths to distract themselves from the stench of raw sewage flowing north from Tijuana.

Then one day, a young county supervisor, Brian Bilbray, showed up riding atop a bulldozer, pledging to tackle the problem. Bilbray later became a congressman, and continued to win the support of Border Patrol agents for his tough stance on illegal immigration and his advocacy for more agents on the border.

So when Bilbray found himself stuck in a tough reelection campaign in 2000 against then-California State Rep. Susan Davis, the National Border Patrol Council took the unusual step of making an endorsement. Historically, the council had eschewed politics, preferring to let its parent union-the American Federation of Government Employees-make the political calls. But in this case, AFGE had decided to support Davis and even given her a $500 campaign contribution. Border Patrol agents were outraged.

Some union members questioned why AFGE decided to remain neutral in the 2002 race pitting then-Rep. Constance Morella, R-Md., against Democratic challenger Chris Van Hollen, a race Morella eventually lost. "They just encouraged anyone with an R behind her name from ever sticking up for us again," says one AFGE member.

For interest groups like federal employee unions it's a constant dilemma: Do you support candidates based on their party affiliation, or their personal voting record? On the one hand, federal employee unions could argue that Democrats are generally more supportive and, therefore, the unions should support only Democrats to get the party back into power. On the other hand, critics and Republican union members can argue that in a closely divided Congress, unions should seek to keep any friends that they have.

Unions say they take the latter bipartisan approach, even though their actions sometimes belie their words. Federal unions variously estimate that between 20 and 40 percent of their members identify themselves as Republicans. This year, AFGE delayed endorsing Kerry at least in part to appease them. "A good percentage of our members are Republican and coming out during the primaries seems to inflame them," Gage says. This year, Gage felt that a less hasty and more exhaustive internal discussion at AFGE would help soothe the eventual blow for the AFGE's Republican members.