NASW News


More Endorsements Issued


NASW’s political action committee, Political Action for Candidate Election, has endorsed 39 more candidates for the next Congress, bringing the number of incumbent endorsements for the U.S. House of Representatives to 151. The 39 additional endorsements also include five incumbent senators.

In addition, PACE endorsed two House and one Senate primary challengers as well as one candidate running for an open seat in each chamber.

PACE announced its final candidate endorsements Sept. 27, after this story’s deadline.

This year, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 36 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs on Nov. 2.

Brian Dautch, a senior political action associate with NASW who helps the PACE board with choosing which candidates to endorse, said there is still plenty of time to get involved in a campaign.

Dautch said this election is shaping up to be a philosophical debate about the size and role of federal government. “A lot of candidates think government is too big; they believe federal spending for social services has to be reined in,” he said.

Depending on the outcome of the election, many of the gains accomplished in the 111th Congress could be reversed, said NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark. Though Congress passed major health care reform, Clark said more needs to be done to contain health care costs, and efforts to do so while protecting access to social services could prove troublesome if the new Congress increases its ranks with hard-line fiscal conservatives.

The national PACE Board of Trustees endorses and contributes financially to candidates running for U.S. House and Senate seats, regardless of political party affiliation, who support NASW’s policy agenda; state chapter PACE units weigh in on local and state races.

.