Vote count underway in Teamsters election

Portlander Tom Leedham is running for president of the international Teamsters union, hoping to unseat James Hoffa. The vote count is underway. Coverage from the Oregonian:

As of 9 p.m. PST [Tuesday], Hoffa led the two-man race with 69 percent of the votes. Just fewer than 33,000 ballots had been counted, though, of nearly 300,000 members who had mailed in ballots, said Rich Leebove, a Hoffa campaign spokesman.

All of the votes tallied Tuesday came from the union's eastern U.S. region. It won't finish counting votes from its central, southern, western and Canadian regions until late this week.

David Levin, a spokesman for Leedham's campaign, said the longtime Portland union leader hopes to take the central and southern regions, where he has pounded Hoffa for problems with members' pension funds.

"We know our strength is not in the East," Levin said.

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Nov. 15, 2006 Posted in in the news 2006.