(The New York Times posted the following article by Steven Greenhouse and Rachel L. Swarns on its website on October 1.)
WASHINGTON — The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced yesterday that it would not endorse a Democratic presidential candidate this month, dealing a sharp setback to the campaign of Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri.
After meeting with other union leaders in Washington, John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. president, said he was canceling an endorsement meeting planned for Oct. 14 because he could not muster the two-thirds support Mr. Gephardt needed to obtain the federation’s coveted backing. Nor was there a consensus on anyone else in the crowded Democratic field.
For years as House Democratic leader, Mr. Gephardt has been a staunch ally of organized labor, and his aides hoped that an October endorsement would give him a lift going into the winter primary season.
It would have given him labor’s imprimatur and provided hundreds of union officials to work for him across the nation during the primaries and caucuses.
The federation’s failure to make an endorsement reflected a split between labor’s industrial and service unions. It also displayed labor’s reluctance to step out and try to mold an early presidential field still in flux. If the federation had made an endorsement, it might have seized an influential role given that the Democratic contest appears to be a muddle at this stage. If anything, this uncertainty caused the federation not to rally behind one candidate.
Yesterday’s decision seemed certain to revive questions about Mr. Gephardt’s viability as a candidate, particularly since he raised less money than expected in the second quarter and has been regularly outpaced by others in polls.
Still, Mr. Gephardt and his staff and backers sought to put the best face on his failure to obtain the endorsement. Mr. Gephardt said he was still hopeful that the federation would endorse him before the first Democratic primaries, in January. In the meantime, he applauded the organization’s decision to allow individual unions to make their own endorsements, which he said would quickly lead to additional backing for his campaign. Many unions had already made endorsements even though the federation had asked them to hold off.
“I’ve got 14 and we’re going to get many more,” Mr. Gephardt said in a telephone interview from Philadelphia. “It’s like anything in politics: You go at it a day at a time. I think we’re really in a great spot. Whether or not we get to the two-thirds, we’re going to have the lion’s share of union support.”
Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and a presidential contender, welcomed labor’s decision.
“I think it’s good for the labor movement, good for the Democrats,” Dr. Dean said in Los Angeles, while his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said, “This gives us another month or two to go out and continue to build our support.”
Bret Caldwell, the communications director for the Teamsters, who have endorsed Mr. Gephardt, said of the federation’s failure to endorse him, “Remember, there are nine other candidates who fought to keep this from happening.”
Union leaders said there was a stormy debate about what to do, with Gephardt enthusiasts arguing that it would be disloyal for the federation not to endorse the one Democratic candidate who has fought alongside labor on issue after issue.
But a group of pragmatic union presidents, noting that Mr. Gephardt was not doing well in the polls or in fund-raising, warned that if the federation endorsed him and he flopped in primaries and caucuses, then labor would look weak and out of touch.
After his meeting in Washington, Mr. Sweeney had kind words for Mr. Gephardt as he acknowledged that there was not enough backing among the federation’s 64 member unions and 13 million members to endorse him. Praising Mr. Gephardt for “his outstanding leadership for working families for many years,” Mr. Sweeney said, “Dick has been a real friend of working people and a powerful voice for working families on issue after issue, including against the threat of unfair trade.”
Mr. Gephardt has strong backing from industrial unions, including the United Steelworkers of America and the International Association of Machinists. But four large nonindustrial unions representing more than one-third of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s membership said they were not ready to endorse Mr. Gephardt or anybody else because their membership was too divided and the 10-candidate field too fluid. Those unions are the Service Employees International Union, with 1.5 million members; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, with 1.3 million; the American Federation of Teachers, with 1.1 million; and the Communications Workers of America, with 700,000.
“We just feel it’s very volatile at this time,” said Sandra Feldman, president of the teachers’ union. “You just got this new ingredient of Wesley Clark. The members are just no way near there yet. But that doesn’t mean we’re saying never about making an endorsement.”
The Gephardt forces originally hoped to win the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s endorsement at the federation’s executive council meeting in Chicago in early August. When that failed, they were looking to gain the endorsement on Oct. 14, but now many labor leaders say it is highly doubtful that Mr. Gephardt will win the endorsement before the New Hampshire primary or Iowa caucuses, if at all.
Mr. Gephardt has won the endorsement of 14 unions, while only one other candidate has obtained a union endorsement. Last week, the International Association of Fire Fighters endorsed John Kerry.
Mr. Gephardt emphasized that in its history the federation had backed only two candidates before the primaries, Al Gore in 2000 and Walter Mondale in 1984. Mr. Gore was vice president at the time and Mr. Mondale had been vice president.
“There’s nothing to me in this that was of any surprise,” Mr. Gephardt said. “I’ve always said getting two-thirds is really a high bar.”
Despite the split in the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the Teamsters and several unions plan to announce formation of a Labor Committee for Gephardt within the next week. Those unions will send their own staff and volunteers into Iowa, New Hampshire and other states, but that is not expected to be as effective as when the A.F.L.-C.I.O. mobilizes all of labor’s forces after making an endorsement.