Gephardt Fails To Get AFL-CIO Endorsement

CHICAGO, Aug. 6 — Despite aggressive efforts by Representative Richard A. Gephardt to quickly win the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s endorsement for the Democratic presidential nomination, the labor federation said today that it was not prepared to back anyone yet and would not decide before mid-October.

The delay appeared to stall the momentum Mr. Gephardt had gained within organized labor in recent weeks. The congressman, a longtime labor ally, has won endorsements from 11 national unions, while none of the other Democrats has received even one.

So far, though, the big prize from labor and its 13 million union members, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. endorsement, has eluded him.

Mr. Sweeney, who has been meeting with union leaders here this week, said an endorsement would come no sooner than Oct. 15.

Mr. Gephardt, of Missouri, has been dogged by questions about his electability. Other candidates have described him as too far left of center to attract a broad range of voters.

Leaders of several unions that have not yet endorsed a candidate said the delay reflected a nagging conflict over whether to coalesce around a candidate whose policies have been especially favorable to labor or around one with a wide enough appeal to defeat President Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/politics/campaigns/07LABO.html

Well.. it's just a delay. I'm betting he'll get the nomination in October. It'll be a nice surge for his campaign, timed for when more people are paying attention.

This endorsement would have given his campaign momentum that we can't afford (I think he would be an AWFUL candidate). I wish he would drop out and throw his energy into the Missouri Senate seat, bond CAN be beaten.

Seriously, this doesn't surprise me! I mean Al Gore didn't get the full AFL-CIO endorsement in 2000 until October and he was a sitting Vice-President running against 1 guy. Dick Gephardt has a great labor record, but is running against 8 others. 5 of whom have pretty good labor records also.

The fact that they're even going to reconsider in October still gives him hope. Gephardt probably needs a solid fundraising 3rd quarter and to keep getting more and more individual unions on-board, especially those bigger industrial unions like UAW, IBEW, OEIU that seem to be closely tied to him. AFT, SEIU and AFSCME are definitely big prizes too, however these are not industrial unions so I don't believe they have has deep of ties to Dick.

I've said it several times and I'll say it again I think gephardt would be a great nominee, especially for the arguments made by the Airline Pilots union head. “The battleground states in the industrial Midwest — that’s where it’s going to be fought, that’s where the manufacturing jobs are being lost,” said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association. “It’s Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, that’s the center of the country that is going to determine the presidential election.

Look at the states Gore did not win. Gephardt, because of his unique working-class background and being from Missouri had the ability to motivate those voters.”

Didn't win Missouri or Ohio, so point taken, but Gephardt probably wouldn't win Ohio either, and if we're talking electoral votes from a home state Graham (Florida) would make the most sense.

i think they want to endorse him, but first want to make sure he actually has a good enough chance of winning the primary.

We might be in a situation here where Gephardt's union endorsements and Kerry's institutional Democratic strength cancel each other out and thus favor Dean. But we'll see.