Connecticut Working Families | Vote your values. Vote Working Families.

As Election Day approaches and the economy worsens, voters can expect candidates to do everything possible to show their concern for the struggles of ordinary working class and middle class families. And this year, even more than when Bill Clinton bluntly reminded us "it's the economy, stupid," there's an awful lot to be concerned about: the credit crunch, the housing crisis, the crumbling health care system, stagnant wages, regressive taxes, and the rising cost of everything from energy to gas to college tuition. It's fair to say that working families are feeling more insecure about their future than at any time in the past decade.

That insecurity clearly spills over into the political arena. In a presidential election year, polls show that unprecedented numbers feel the economy and the country are moving in the wrong direction. This was true even before the recent collapse of financial giants Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Words of compassion from political candidates, even when genuine and sincere, provide little comfort for the families struggling to pay their mortgage, or their electric bills, or their college loans, or their property taxes.

But there is party in Connecticut that focuses on the concerns of working families not just at election time but every single day. And for the first time, every voter in Connecticut will have the opportunity to demonstrate their concern with our troubled economy by casting a vote on the Working Families line on their ballot.

Working Families is an independent political party started by community activists, union members and concerned citizens who wanted to make our government focus more on those pocket book issues that affect all of us, like affordable health care, good jobs, fair taxes and quality schools. Unlike other minor political parties, Working Families often cross-endorses major party candidates who support our goals.

Minor political parties rarely have much impact on elections. And voters are justifiably skeptical of "wasting their vote" on a minor party candidate who cannot possibly win. What makes Working Families different is the strategy of cross-endorsement. We research the records and the positions of both Democrats and Republicans and endorse whichever candidate is genuinely committed to putting the needs of working people first.

When you vote for a Democrat or a Republican on the Working Families line, you're vote counts for the candidate just the same as a vote on the major party line. But a Working Families vote also sends a powerful message to all politicians that it's time to put working families first again.

The real work to fix our economy will start the day after Election Day. That means working to pass good laws geared toward creating living wage jobs, not just minimum wage jobs; expanding access to quality, affordable health care; lifting the burden of property taxes on the middle class; and restoring a measure of economic security for hard working families. Our elected officials will have to make difficult choices to put our country and our state back on the right track.

Voting on the Working Families line is a small way that each of us point our politicians in the right direction -- and give them a little push.

Jon Green is executive director of Connecticut Working Families, which has its headquarters in Hartford.


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