Political Activity and Other Roles
Although personally "progressive", Weingarten and the UFT endorsed George Pataki for re-election as Governor of New York in 2002. Weingarten is very active in city politics as well, and has been described as a "kingmaker" in New York City mayoral politics due to her union leadership position.
Weingarten has also served as President and Vice-President of the New York City Central Labor Council (NYC CLC), AFL-CIO, although as of 2007 she is only a member of the board. She leads the CLC's Municipal Labor Committee, a coalition of public-sector unions representing members working for the City of New York. She has been called the only municipal union leader on par with the powerful union presidents of the 1970s who helped rescue New York City from bankruptcy—Victor Gotbaum, executive director of AFSCME District Council 37; Albert Shanker, president of the UFT; and Barry Feinstein, president of Teamsters Local 237.
A lifelong Democrat, Weingarten is a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She was an early and critically important supporter of Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC. She is a superdelegate who was pledged to Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential primary. In January 2009, she was mentioned as a possible candidate in the appointment process to replace Clinton's U.S. Senate seat.
Weingarten is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Albert Shanker Institute.
Read more about this topic: Randi Weingarten
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