Mike Hodge Headshot - P 2011
Stephen Lovekin/Getty ImagesSAG-AFTRA New York local president Mike Hodge will run for the union’s second highest office, his campaign announced Friday. That sets up a battle between Hodge and Gabrielle Carteris, SAG-AFTRA’s national vp for Los Angeles, who announced her candidacy earlier this week. It’s a rare split, since they’re members of allied groups.
“I’m excited about the prospect of serving as our union’s executive vice president,” said Hodge “We set a strong foundation through merger and now it’s time for SAG-AFTRA to fulfill its potential and set the standard for labor representation across the entertainment and media industries. I would be honored to provide an east coast complement to our union’s national leadership.”
“Mike Hodge is someone I’ve counted on for strong, steady leadership from the very start of my union service, and he has never failed to deliver,” said SAG-AFTRA national president Ken Howard. “I’m tremendously impressed with the way he’s handled things in New York, and it’s important that our national union have leadership that reflects our national footprint.”
Howard added, “Our convention delegates will have at least two solid candidates to consider, but my choice will be Mike Hodge.”
Hodge also received endorsements from a range of SAG-AFTRA leaders around the country, including former executive vice president Ned Vaughn, Clyde Kusatsu (president of the Los Angeles local), Jay Potter (first vice president of the New York local), John Wooten (president of the Philadelphia local), Jenny O’Hara (first vice president of the Los Angeles Local), Ed Kelly (former national board member from Michigan), Maureen Donnelly (third vice president of the New York local), Steve Gladstone (president of the Miami local), L. Scott Caldwell (national board member and national co-chair of the union’s national women’s committee and Healthcare SafetyNet), and Tom Ligon (former SAG NY board member and current national co-chair of the union’s senior performers committee).
Hodge has worked in stage on Broadway and on regional to national tours, and in film, television, commercials, radio, and new media. His union service began in 2000, being elected as a SAG national board member, then NY secretary, and NY vice president, until being elected SAG NY president in 2009. Over the past decade, Hodge has served on multiple contract negotiating committees, including TV/Theatrical, Basic Cable, Commercials, and Corporate/Educational.
Carteris is a member of the union’s Unite for Strength party and Hodge is member of a UFS-ally group, Unite SAG-AFTRA Nationwide (a New York party despite the moniker), but there are organizational differences between the candidates as well: Carteris has a strong AFTRA lineage, having been president of that union’s Los Angeles local (and current national vp for Los Angeles), while Hodge has a SAG pedigree, having been president of the Guild’s New York Division prior to merger.
UFS will not be endorsing either candidate, sources told THR.
If elected, Hodge would continue to hold the New York office as well. Former SAG-AFTRA co-president Roberta Reardon had been expected to run, but instead endorsed Carteris after losing the election for NY local president to Hodge.
Other endorsements of Hodge include those of Manny Alfaro, Dave Bachman, Molly Ballard, Marc Baron, Sandra M. Bloom, Christine Bruno, Angela Bullock, Bill Charlton, Assaf Cohen, Roy Costley, Ellen Crawford, Bertila Damas, Rebecca Damon, Gene DeFrancis, Rik Deskin, Mike Genovese, Nancy Giles, Traci Godfrey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Diane Jones, Sandra Karas, Verania Kenton, Ezra Knight, Bob Lydiard, Ron Morgan, Jack Mulcahy, Jody Myers, Christine Nagy, Debra Nelson, Janice Pendarvis, Buzz Roddy, Marisa Redanty, Nick Sakai, Woody Schultz, Kevin Scullin, leslie Shreve, Keith Randolph Smith, Jamal Story, Megan Thomas, Tania Villanueva, Vivicca Whitsett, Rick Zahn and Liz Zazzi.
Bookmark The Hollywood Reporter’s Labor Page for the most in-depth coverage of entertainment unions and guilds.
Email: jhandel99 at gmail dot com
Twitter: @jhandel
