(The following article by Dan Balz was published by the Washington Post on August 7.)
CHICAGO — Leaders of organized labor today authorized AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney to convene a meeting on Oct. 15 for the purpose of trying to endorse a Democratic candidate for president, keeping alive the slender hopes of Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) to win broad union support for his presidential candidacy.
The resolution, approved by the AFL’s executive council, calls for an October meeting of labor’s general board if it appears there is sufficient support for one of the nine Democratic candidates to win the endorsement. Sweeney told reporters, “My own opinion is there will be a general board meeting.”
Some Gephardt supporters, including James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, had come here with the hope of winning support for a resolution recommending a Gephardt endorsement in October. That resolution was never formally offered, a sign that the former House Democratic leader has considerable work to do over the next two months.
Sweeney and Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), also announced plans today for labor to spend at least $45 million by November 2004 in an effort to defeat President Bush. Sweeney said no recent Republican administration has been as “malicious on workers’ issues and more determined to seek advantage for corporate America” as Bush’s.
An AFL-CIO endorsement could prove decisive in determining who wins the Democratic nomination. Labor support comes with the money and machinery to educate and mobilize union households in the early primary and caucus states. A candidate must receive the support of two-thirds of the AFL’s 13 million members.
Gephardt already has received the endorsement of 10 international unions and will make that 11 on Saturday when the Teamsters make their support official.
He appears to be the only candidate with the potential to win the AFL’s backing. “Right now, it’s Gephardt or no endorsement,” said Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Gephardt is the sentimental favorite of much of labor because of his tireless advocacy of their issues, but some unions have been reluctant to endorse him because they are not convinced he can beat Bush. His lackluster fundraising in the second quarter has raised more doubts.
Gephardt’s support is particularly strong among the industrial unions for which trade is a crucial issue, but he has not consolidated the support of key service-sector and public-sector unions. Those unions have also been looking at Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and, increasingly, former Vermont governor Howard Dean.
Stern’s SEIU is one of three big unions still neutral, along with AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Gephardt’s fundraising problems are not particularly worrisome to his union’s assessment, Stern said; he said the ability of a candidate to relate to ordinary Americans will be crucial, along with stands on issues such as health care.
“We think it’s very important that, by the elections, voters have a sense that this is a candidate they would like to have dinner with, go bowling with, and I think George Bush did incredibly well in the last election and Al Gore had his problems,” Stern said.
AFSCME’s McEntee is seen as leaning toward Kerry, but has said he remains open to various Democrats. He said his union is looking for a winner. “That’s the most important thing of all for a number of unions,” he said. “It is for ours. We’re looking at electability.”
Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, said no Democrat has a better chance of winning in 2004 than Gephardt. “Everybody that you talk to says that this election is going to be won in the industrial heartland,” he told reporters. “Dick is the industrial heartland. That’s where his values are.”
AFT President Sandra Feldman said Dean’s opposition to the war in Iraq presents a big hurdle to a union that passed a resolution in support of the war. “I personally think it’s a mistake to go into an election against the war,” she said.