December 15, 2010: Teamster members collected 50,000 signatures to successfully accredit Sandy Pope as a candidate for General President.

The Sandy Pope Campaign turned in the petitions to the Election Supervisor on Tuesday, Dec. 14, easily surpassing the 33,437 signatures required by the election rules.

As a result, Sandy and the campaign will be able to reach out directly to 1.3 million Teamsters, including in the pages of the February issue of the Teamster magazine.

A third candidate, Fred Gegare, also submitted accreditation petitions to be tabulated by the Election Supervisor.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union members joined Teamsters across the country in the Sandy Pope petition drive. We should all celebrate this success along with the holidays, and rest up too, because 2011 promises to be a busy year.

We’ve got delegate races to win and a campaign army to build. The petition drive shows that and we have the national network we need to reach Teamsters members who care about our union and want a better future—without Hoffa at the helm.

We’ve got to build that campaign army in the coming year. We’re off to a great start. But this is just the beginning.