Just how big is news that Howie Dean has locked
up the endorsement not only of the 1.6-million-member Service
Employees International Union led by Andrew Stern,
but apparently also of the 1.4 million-member American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees led by Gerald
McEntee?
“Kerry? A goner. Edwards? A goner. Gephardt? I don’t know,” says
an AFL-CIO lobbyist in Washington. “That Dean has managed to get
both unions locked up is remarkable given that four months ago, one
of them seemed to be in Gephardt’s pocket and the other was in
Kerry’s.”
Perhaps what is even more remarkable is that Dean has managed to
bridge the bitter divide between McEntee and Stern, both of whom
have spent the past six months warily circling each other trying to
outplay the other on the Democratic campaign trail.
McEntee liked other candidates. He was a huge early booster of
Sen. John Kerry. Then he was in love with his pal
Bill Clinton’s stalking horse, Wesley
Clark. In the end, his membership’s love affair with Dean
won out. And it appears that McEntee’s request to Stern to delay
the formal announcement of the Dean endorsement so that the two
unions could do it together next Wednesday is a power play to shake
up the Democratic Party.
“The elections on Tuesday, losing in Mississippi and in
Kentucky, neither of which were big on the union agenda, were still
big for the national party,” says the AFL-CIO lobbyist. “Both Stern
and McEntee want a larger voice in the party, more influence.
Crowning their candidate now puts them in a very influential
position inside the party because the party leader, Terry
McAuliffe, is looking weaker as the days go by.”
Never mind the Democratic Party, which by now has already been
bought by organized labor and the $350 million it will use to help
Democrats next year. Stern and McEntee’s joint endorsement is also
big inside the big-tent AFL-CIO. Even union folks say that while
Dean’s big union backing perhaps puts him over the top, Gephardt
remains in the picture.
“Dean has two big fish, but Gephardt has 18 fish already in the
basket. This thing isn’t over yet,” says the AFL-CIO lobbyist, who
notes that it isn’t the size of the unions a candidate has
endorsement, but the sheer number of AFL affiliate endorsements.
Gephardt still trumps all of his competitors on that front, which
is why the former party leader in the House remains more
competitive than others right now.
Reading the press reports about Dean’s labor coup, it’s clear
that pundits are writing off some of the candidates — Kerry and
Edwards to be most precise. Under normal circumstances that would
be surprising, given the kooky election cycles we’ve been seeing.
But the union hold on the Democratic Party is now so strong and
influential, it’s difficult to see any candidate without strong
labor backing successfully winning the nomination.
In the meantime, rumors were swirling in Washington late
Thursday that Stern and McEntee were trying to get DNC chairman
McAuliffe to somehow play a role in the endorsement proceedings,
perhaps in a bid to further co-opt the party to their whims.
