I always thought this approach would be worth trying:

Ballots cast throughout New Jersey on Tuesday will list hundreds of candidates, their parties and the offices they seek. But for 53 candidates, the ballots will not say one of the most important things they have in common: union-approved.

These people running for town councilman, mayor, county freeholder and other posts are graduates of a state A.F.L.-C.I.O. program to recruit, train and support candidates for public office who are union members or who support pro-union policies.

The program, which costs the union about $250,000 a year to run, has groomed more than 160 current officeholders — the overwhelming majority of them Democrats — including 8 members of the Legislature, 12 county freeholders, 18 mayors and a county clerk.

   If you look at the tens of millions of dollars unions spend to elect people who are, at best, mostly mediocre when it comes to advancing labor’s agenda, the New Jersey effort seems like a bargain.