Politicians have ways of getting the pulse without directly polling their entire constituency. They typically know what the people they represent want and their core values when they go into a vote. For example, my Grandfather was the School Board president in very small town America back in the 50s. Whenever there was a big referendum up he didn't bother going from door to door to find out what people wanted because he had a full-time job outside his elected position. He chose instead to go sit in the barber shop on Saturday morning while grandma went to the town's restaurant. Nobody knows the pulse of a town better than the man who cuts its hair and the woman who keeps its coffee fresh, so even though not everyone got to have their say, the general consensus could be arrived upon.

Its not necissary for every LEC rep to talk to every pilot to find out whats going on (it could take months for the DAL ATL folks) but sitting around the crew lounge during a thunderstorm and talking about the details of the proposal would have done the trick. My fear (from talking to former ALPA higher-ups) is that this was a calculated effort by ALPA to railroad this thing through and a lot of back-room handshake deals were done to get it passed. Fortunately I don't think this is the case since the measure failed but it should be a wake-up call for those of you who's reps didn't vote the way the pilots would have. Keep it in mind when they come up for re-election lest we want history to repeat itself for the worse.