WP: Divided Labor Loyalties

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502948_pf.html

By David S. Broder
Sunday, February 17, 2008; B07

When Walter Mondale was threatened by the insurgent candidacy of Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic presidential contest, he turned to his friends at the AFL-CIO for help, and their endorsement was instrumental in pulling him through to the nomination.

When another veteran officeholder, Al Gore, was challenged in 2000 by Bill Bradley, the same thing happened. In both cases, loyalties nurtured over the years and reinforced by White House ties helped determine the Democratic winner.

As the current Democratic campaign heads for the industrial states of Wisconsin on Tuesday, Ohio on March 4 and Pennsylvania on April 22 -- places where union membership is important -- Hillary Clinton is similarly in need of a rescue effort against the surging Barack Obama.

But this time, organized labor is divided, and the latest break has gone to Obama, with the United Food and Commercial Workers endorsing him on Thursday and the Service Employees International Union following on Friday. The two unions have about 3 million members between them, but are outside the AFL-CIO. Conversations with leaders of the labor federation and both the Obama and Clinton campaigns last week convinced me that there is no chance of an AFL-CIO endorsement in time to affect the battle for elected delegates.

And the splits within labor mean that other elements of the Democratic coalition -- women, African Americans, Latinos and activist liberals -- are likely to play a bigger role in the race.

That does not, however, mean that the labor vote or the unions themselves are unimportant at this stage of the race. Both campaigns are targeting workers and their families in the three big industrial states and in Texas, which also votes on March 4.

FULL story at link.