Thompson Wins AFL-CIO Vote Over Stevenson

Gov. James R. Thompson picked up another major union endorsement Friday when he beat out Adlai E. Stevenson III to became the first Republican candidate ever to win the support of the Illinois AFL-CIO.

Thompson received 509 votes, or 68.2% of the 746 votes cast. He needed a two-thirds majority, or 66.7% of the votes, to win the endorsement.

No move was made to take a vote on endorsing Stevenson.

Campaign Struggles

The endorsement dealt another blow to Stevenson’s campaign, which has been struggling since two supporters of radical politician Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. won Democratic nominations--Janice Hart for secretary of state and Mark Fairchild for lieutenant governor.

The surprise victories by the LaRouche supporters prompted Stevenson to renounce the Democratic nomination and mount a third-party campaign.

Stevenson won the AFL-CIO endorsement as a Democratic candidate against Thompson in the 1982 campaign for governor. The labor organization represents an estimated 900,000 Illinois workers.

One delegate, Tom Stockton, said: “What you saw here today was not an endorsement for a good governor, but rather an anti-Adlai sentiment that prevails.”

‘Toyota Stevenson’

Several delegates wore buttons with the words “Toyota Stevenson” on a Japanese flag, a reference to a recent revelation that Stevenson had purchased a Japanese pickup truck for his farm.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, representing 40,000 workers, endorsed Thompson last month. The United Auto Workers, representing 65,000 members in Illinois, has declined to endorse a candidate for governor.

“It means nothing in terms of votes,” Stevenson said of the AFL-CIO action. “There is not one voter in Illinois who will vote for Big Jim because big labor and the big special interests are for him.”