Labor: Results send 'sobering reminder' to lawmakers to perform

Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race should serve as a "sobering reminder" to lawmakers ahead of this fall's election, an AFL-CIO official warned.

Shortly after news outlets called the state for Brown, one AFL-CIO official said that the results in Massachusetts should underscore the need for lawmakers to actually accomplish things if they want to win elections.

"This election should be a sobering reminder to candidates running in 2010," the labor official said. "Voters are fed up with inaction in Washington and are expecting RESULTS.  If candidates want the votes of working families they need to PASS a jobs bill, health care, financial regulation and labor law reform."

The statement is a warning to Democrats from organized labor, a normally supportive constituency that has been spurned in part over the past year on financial regulation reform, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), and elements of health reform legislation.

Labor groups loaded up Massachusetts on behalf of state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D), including knocking on over 56,000 doors and made north of 760,000 live or robocalls.

The AFL-CIO official said that the lesson, and warning, for candidates is: don't run to the center on issues.

"If officials go running to the center like some are calling for, and away from what they campaigned on, they learned exactly the wrong lesson from this election," the labor source said.

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