By The Prowler on 1.21.03 @ 12:03AM
John Weaver gets serious. Big Labor's $20 million vote getter.
WEAVER OFFENSE
John Weaver is already working for the Democrats,
providing strategic political advice to both House and Senate
leaders on ways to beat the Republicans. Now he's telling reporters
and colleagues that he's ready to jump on a Democratic presidential
campaign.
Weaver is surely a man in demand, given that he masterminded the
John McCain "Straight Talk" presidential primary
campaign against George W. Bush in 2000. On the basis of that
thorn-in-the-side experience, Bush loyalists did just about
everything to lock Weaver out of Republican political circles.
To be fair, Weaver wasn't that much of a Republican or a
conservative to begin with, so his jump to jobs with Rep.
Dick Gephardt and the Democratic caucus in the
Senate shouldn't have come as that big of a surprise.
But if Weaver does end up working for a Democratic presidential
campaign, he could present all kinds of problems to other Dem
camps, not to mention Bush in the general election if it gets that
far.
"He's got all kinds of state lists of so-called independent
voters," says a Democratic leadership staffer. "He knows how to
reach out to those people, get them mobilized and what buttons to
push to get them to cross over." Especially in New Hampshire.
Best bets for luring Weaver go to Gephardt and -- perhaps --
Sen. John Edwards, who is still looking for senior
campaign advisers. Gephardt would appear to be the natural option,
if only because Weaver has been doing work for him over the past
few months.
CHEAT EARLY BUT OFTEN
The AFL-CIO has already found a way to help the Democratic National
Committee with its 2004 election plans. So far it has received $20
million in commitments from local unions to underwrite a tax-exempt
nonprofit organization that will fund "get out the vote" programs
around the country. The organization, which will be run by the
union's former political director, Steve
Rosenthal, intends to focus its windfall on swing states
in the rust belt, New York, Florida and some western states, in all
about a dozen states.
All of the money will be directed toward getting the vote out
for Democratic candidates. While the DNC can't touch all that
lucre, it has been meeting with AFL-CIO officials to help the union
map out the game plan for the new outfit, which will be up and
running by the middle of February.
topics:
John McCain, Unions
