6 Democratic Hopefuls Share Stage, Woo Labor : Politics: They support unions’ traditional goals at AFL-CIO meeting. Harkin is an audience favorite.

In a curiously subdued performance, the six major Democratic presidential candidates shared the same stage for the first time Tuesday, sparring gently as they maneuvered for the support of organized labor, one of the party’s most powerful constituencies.

Appearing for 90 minutes before the biennial AFL-CIO convention, the six candidates affirmed their support for labor’s traditional agenda and minimized their differences with each other. Often in similar language, they aligned behind common goals: investing more in American workers, shifting funds from the defense budget to domestic needs, and moving toward a system of national health insurance.

But the audience reaction left little doubt that Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin made the strongest impression, with his folksy manner, casual contempt for President Bush, and unvarnished appeal for support. “Harkin clearly got the best response,” said Jay Mazur, president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

The session, which was held before 729 union delegates in a city whose economic deterioration stands as a symbol of labor’s shifting fortunes, marked the opening of the giant AFL-CIO’s presidential endorsement process. Labor officials plan to distribute tapes of the appearance to union locals around the country, and then poll their members to see if a consensus develops behind a candidate.

With the contenders mostly focusing their fire on Bush, the meeting did little to sharpen the Democratic race, which has been eclipsed considerably over the past three weeks by speculation about whether New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo intends to join the field. Even as the announced candidates gathered in Detroit, Cuomo’s inscrutable intentions remained a major subject of discussion for the union leaders.

At times Tuesday, it appeared as if the Democratic contenders themselves were waiting for Cuomo--or just a bell that never rang. Though several of the candidates have argued that the party must set a new course if it is to regain the White House, that message was sharply muted before the labor leaders, many of whom are skeptical.

Toward the end of the Tuesday’s session, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton told the audience--to notable silence--that they should “accept as Democrats the challenge to change so that all of us can be part of an American economic renewal.” But through most of the day, Clinton, like the others on the stage, generally sidestepped opportunities to highlight differences with the traditional Democratic approaches favored by the unions.

The candidates differed on only a few issues. Clinton, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas all indicated support for President Bush’s proposed free trade agreement with Mexico, which organized labor bitterly opposes on the grounds that it will mean a loss of American jobs to Mexican factories. “If we have a social contract between the United States and Mexico, which I am going to argue for . . . then in fact we can make trade work for all people in this country,” Kerrey said.

The most dramatic deviation came from Tsongas, who alone among the candidates said he opposed the anti-strikebreaker legislation that ranks at the top of labor’s legislative priority list. “I would love to get (labor) support,” Tsongas declared, “but I’m not going to flip-flop and I don’t think it’s good economics.”

Harkin, by contrast, emphasized in often emotional and personal terms his support for labor’s agenda, praising government workers and teachers, and denouncing the proposed free trade agreement.

“There are some who say you’re the problem; I’m here to say you’re part of the solution,” Harkin declared to loud applause. “When I’m President of the United States, every double-breasting, scab-hiring, union-hurting employer in America will know the working people of America have a friend in the White House.”

Though the session illuminated few of the ideological differences between the candidates, it did suggest that a principal dividing line in the race may be drawn along another boundary: between outsiders and Washington insiders.

Former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. used virtually every question as an opportunity to recite the catechism of his campaign: an attack on the influence of special-interest money over Washington and his own party.

“For 25 years, the Democratic Party has talked about having a national health insurance plan,” he declared. “But as long as the medical-insurance complex pumps tens of millions of dollars into the incumbent party, both Democrat and Republican, you’re not going to see a national health insurance bill.”

Though less incendiary in his language, Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder touched a similar chord, telling the labor leaders, “there’s a two-party system in this country--one inside the Beltway (that surrounds the capital), and one outside the Beltway.”

While Tuesday’s appearance suggests all the candidates are eager for labor’s blessing, it remains unclear whether any will get it.

In 1984, the AFL-CIO endorsed former Vice President Walter F. Mondale--only to see Sens. Gary Hart and John Glenn, Mondale’s two principal competitors, raise the labor support as evidence the front-runner was indebted to “special interests.” In 1988, with none of the contenders as familiar to labor as Mondale--and some union leaders chastened by their experience in 1984--the federation remained neutral through the primaries.

This time, some union officials remain reluctant to stamp a candidate with the AFL-CIO imprimatur. “There is a post-Mondale syndrome,” said the political director for one large union.

Despite those concerns, most labor officials believe the unions are convinced that Bush is vulnerable in 1992 and will try to maximize their role in naming his challenger by endorsing one of the Democrats. But many are uncertain whether any of the 1992 Democrats have deep enough relationships with the union leaders--much less the rank-and-file recognition--to win the endorsement, which requires support from unions representing two-thirds of the federation’s 14 million members.

“Our members don’t know any of these people,” says Sam Dawson, political director of the United Steelworkers of America.

Many union officials believe the candidate with the best chance of reaching that threshold is Harkin. But close observers caution that Harkin could find himself stalemated by Kerrey, who also has a friendly voting record on labor issues, and made a favorable impression Tuesday. None of the other contenders are considered likely to amass significant union support.

With the field so little-known, many activists here suspect that if labor endorses at all, it may not pick its candidate until the eve of the primaries--or after the voting has begun next February.

All of these equations would be scrambled if Cuomo enters the race. Though his relations with government employee unions in New York have been fitful, he remains a tantalizing figure to union leaders--one who burns brighter offstage than any of the players in the spotlight.

“A lot of people believe he could gain enough momentum to preempt any of the others,” says Justin Ostro, general vice president of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a union considered generally sympathetic to Harkin.