Democrats in All-Union Dress

In one of their most important forums to date, the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls gathered here Tuesday to pitch themselves to the nation’s labor unions -- a force whose political power has faded in recent decades but whose support remains key to any Democrat’s run for the White House.

The AFL-CIO’s Working Families Presidential Forum focused exclusively on domestic issues, which helped to highlight the subtle differences among the candidates.

The Democrats criticized President Bush’s tax cuts and economic policies for costing the jobs of millions of Americans, and vowed to defend unions against what they said were Bush administration attacks on collective organizing and overtime rules.

Before 2,000 rowdy, chanting union members gathered at the city’s Navy Pier convention center, however, some of the office seekers came across sounding a bit like underpaid labor organizers.

Upon arriving late from the airport, the Rev. Al Sharpton quipped: “I had a non-union cab driver.”

One of the key topics of the evening was trade agreements, which have undermined union power and sent jobs overseas.

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) challenged his rivals on the issue, saying, “This could be a very important debate because we have people on this stage who voted for NAFTA and voted for the WTO,” the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, respectively. “My first act [as president] would be to cancel NAFTA and my second act would be to cancel the WTO.”

Of the candidates who were in Congress for those votes, Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and Bob Graham of Florida all voted for NAFTA.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean also supported the agreement, and his state, which borders Canada, has benefited.

The four candidates did not go for Kucinich’s bait.

“The United States does not have the choice to become a protectionist nation,” Graham said. “We are the leader of the world economy. Leading that economy carries with it certain responsibilities.”

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who has long been labor’s go-to man on trade issues, quickly returned to the anti-free trade theme by reminding the audience of his stalwart opposition to many free-trade agreements.

“I am the one who not only voted against but led the fight against NAFTA,” he said to great cheers. “When I’m president, you won’t have to worry about trade treaties that don’t take care of labor rights, human rights and the environment.”

Said Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina: “We can have free trade, but we need fair trade also.”

The AFL-CIO, which represents 13.5 million workers in 65 unions, aired footage of union workers, Social Security recipients and others asking how the candidates would, if elected, handle such issues as health care, corporate reform, education and job creation. National Public Radio host Bob Edwards then asked each candidate a related question, with a 90-second answer period.

Sharpton pitched his plan for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing health care for all, while Kucinich and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun argued for a single-payer, universal health coverage system. Dean pointed to Vermont’s success with an expanded-coverage plan that helps about 96% of its neediest residents with their medical care.

Lieberman, pointing to the failed effort of President Clinton to develop a universal health plan, promoted a “step-by-step improvement plan” with a reformed system that would allow those who have health benefits, but lose their jobs, to be able to afford continued coverage.

Kerry argued for “a bigger, bolder plan than the one Joe just proposed,” which would be funded in part by rescinding some of Bush’s tax cuts.

Gephardt had the most to gain, or lose, at the forum -- which was watched on television by thousands at union halls across the country -- and he received by far the loudest applause from the Chicago audience when his name was announced.

Long considered by labor one of its key congressional allies, the former House minority leader has all but staked his languishing candidacy on union support as he has struggled to raise funds and rebut a sense that his time came and went in the last presidential election.

Gephardt has an early but substantial lead in securing union endorsements. He received the backing of the United Steel Workers of America on Tuesday and the powerful Teamsters Union last week, bringing the total number of his union endorsements to 11.

Support from the Teamsters, especially -- which has 1.4 million members -- has given a boost to Gephardt, both because his campaign appeared in need of public affirmation and because the Teamsters have previously supported Republican candidates, including George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

With nine candidates at the forum, each having just 90 seconds to answer a question, the gathering was not a debate and offered no real winners or losers.

Gephardt, however, was clearly in his element. He pointed out the purple colors of Service Employees International Union members in the audience and the green T-shirts of those from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

He mentioned, as he often does, his father, who was a Teamster milk-truck driver, and his mother, a secretary who died recently.

“I’ve simply tried to represent people like my parents,” Gephardt said.

Many unions have thus far not endorsed a single candidate in the broad field, instead pushing the contenders to back their agendas and waiting to see who will be most friendly as well as electable.

Republicans, meanwhile, have tried in recent decades, with some success, to lure union members away from the Democratic Party -- their most notable success perhaps being the socially liberal, economically conservative “Reagan Democrats” in Michigan, who remain a force in the battleground state.

The AFL-CIO has endorsed a candidate in the primaries only twice before -- backing Al Gore in 2000 and Walter F. Mondale in 1984. An endorsement requires the approval of two-thirds of its members.

Gephardt appears to be the only candidate with a chance of securing such numbers, labor leaders say, and other candidates went out of their way Tuesday night to appear pro-union -- a tactic that isn’t likely to get them AFL-CIO backing but could keep it from going to Gephardt.

“I cannot wait to stand up and remind [Bush] that having a skilled Navy pilot land you on an aircraft carrier in a borrowed suit does not make up for losing 3 million jobs,” said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, in his closing statement, when the Bush-bashing began in earnest.

Some Democrats have begun to express concern that the party is being forced too far to the left by liberals such as Dean and Kucinich, to the point, they fear, that the Democratic nominee could be viewed as unelectable.

Ed Kilgore, policy director of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, said Tuesday he wasn’t concerned at this point with the direction the candidates are taking, noting that traditional liberalism plays well during the Iowa caucuses and the first primary in New Hampshire.

But, he cautioned candidates, “In the Information Age, you need to remember that whatever you say now is going to be remembered later on. You can’t give different messages to different groups.”