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  • Race/Gender Must Not Be a Factor in Presidential Elections, Says AFGE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 07, 2008
Emily Ryan
(202) 639-6421

Enid Doggett
(202) 639-6419

Race/Gender Must Not Be a Factor in Presidential Elections, Says AFGE



Download the clip here
Radio Distribution List
(WASHINGTON)—The American Federation of Government Employees this week launched a nationwide ad campaign urging the American public to look past race and gender issues, and focus on the real issues when voting in next month’s presidential election.

“There are one hundred good reasons for how you to vote this year and only one bad reason. Let’s talk about the real issues,” AFGE National President John Gage says in the radio ad (attached). He urges voters to focus on the economy, health care, jobs, and foreign policy, among other issues.

Gage recently wrote an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, stating that “some Americans, while viewing themselves as fair-minded, will subconsciously transfer unresolved issues about race into more comfortable zones like patriotism, experience or values … This election is too important to be decided by leftover biases. It is incumbent upon federal workers, as well as other union members, to help crack through racial barriers within our families, friends and neighborhoods.”

AFGE also has a series of radio ads focusing on voter protection that also can be heard in cities across the nation. “The overall objective of the voter protection campaign is to have the nation’s citizens successfully get to the polls, cast ballots, and have their ballots counted,” said AFGE National Vice President for Women and Fair Practices Andrea E. Brooks. “Americans cannot continue to have their ability to participate in the Democratic process taken away from them.”

For more information, please visit www.afge.org, www.itsourturn2008.com and www.afge.org/voterprotection.

###

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 820,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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