(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Leigh Strope on August 7. )
CHICAGO — An AFL-CIO endorsement of a presidential candidate won’t come until October at the earliest, labor leaders decided Wednesday, giving hope to Democrat Dick Gephardt’s rivals determined to deny him the labor prize.
The former House minority leader has courted labor leaders here, trying to build on the solid union support he already has garnered in his race against eight Democrats. The unions already in Gephardt’s camp had hoped to persuade the federation’s executive council to recommend their favorite to the larger AFL-CIO general board.
Instead, a day after labor leaders and hundreds of rank-and-file members heard appeals from Gephardt and his competitors, the executive council voted to give AFL-CIO President John Sweeney authority to call an endorsement meeting of the general board on Oct. 15.
“Union members are examining the record of these candidates, and over the coming weeks and months will make decisions about who would be the best advocate for their future,” Sweeney said at a news conference following the council meeting.
Gephardt’s supporters saw the news as positive, saying that any AFL-CIO endorsement was rare, and the Missouri congressman was the likeliest candidate to get it. The federation has only ever endorsed two candidates.
“We see this is a significant step toward the AFL-CIO endorsement,” said Steve Elmendorf, a senior campaign adviser.
The October date gives the candidates time to increase their fund raising, and in turn, show the viability of their candidacy to the unions. The third-quarter fund raising period ends Sept. 30.
Gephardt struggled to raise cash in the second quarter, falling short of his stated goal and raising doubts among some Democrats.
The Democratic candidates also will take part in two televised debates before the October meeting, giving the federation an opportunity to assess the field and decide on whether they want to make a primary endorsement. The AFL-CIO has only done so twice, backing Al Gore in 2000 and Walter Mondale in 1984.
Gephardt’s rivals took heart in the council’s decision.
“It is a pretty clear signal that no candidate is going to reach the two-thirds necessary for an endorsement,” said Robert Gibbs, campaign spokesman for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Kerry has piqued the interest of several powerful unions and is the most likely candidate to deny Gephardt the endorsement.
Gephardt, a longtime ally of organized labor, must meet a tough threshold: two-thirds support from the federation’s 13.2 million members, or 8.8 million.
He has won endorsements from 11 international unions so far with a collective membership of more than 3 million. More are expected, with the president of the Air Line Pilots Union, Duane Worth, saying his union would endorse Gephardt later this fall.
Several candidates have the backing of local unions, but no other candidate has yet received an international union endorsement.
“We’re going to come back in October and do it,” Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said of a Gephardt AFL-CIO endorsement. His union will officially endorse Gephardt on Saturday. “He’s going to be a very hot item when he starts hitting the trail,” Hoffa said.
Gephardt must persuade skeptical leaders of large service and public sector union holdouts that he is capable of winning the nomination and defeating President Bush.
“Dick Gephardt has the greatest and most passionate labor support of any candidate. The question is how broad is that support,” said the president of one of those unions, Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union, the largest with 1.6 million members.
Another of those powerful unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, with 1.5 million members, is looking at electability, said President Gerald McEntee.
“You judge it by polls. You judge it by fund raising. You judge it by their campaign staff and how effective they are. You judge it by the campaign of the candidate themselves,” McEntee said.
The International Association of Fire Fighters, with 215,000 members, is leaning toward Kerry because of electability, said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the union.
“The stakes are so high and the risk is so great that it comes down to what candidate has the best chance to win,” Schaitberger said. “I just don’t believe that we can allow our hearts and past performance overtake our need to make a decision that can take us to the White House,” he said.
The AFL-CIO had budgeted $33 million for politics, but wants to spend $45 million on the presidential contests. A $5 million transfer out of the federation’s organizing budget, along with other money shifting, are under way. Some officials also want to raise the surcharge affiliates pay to the AFL-CIO by 4 cents per member per month. The last hike, in May 2002, was supposed to provide political funds through summer 2005.