Gore Captures Endorsement of AFL-CIO

With muted public dissent from some of its most influential members, the politically powerful AFL-CIO endorsed Al Gore for president on Wednesday and gave a needed boost to a campaign searching for its footing.

Pushed through by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney during organized labor’s convention in Los Angeles, the endorsement puts the 13-million-member association of unions at the vice president’s disposal for both the primary season and--if he wins the Democratic nomination--the general election campaign.

Among the AFL-CIO unions, the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers voted against the Gore endorsement on the grounds that it was premature. Leaders said they would endorse only after soliciting the views of their 2 million combined members, many of whom are upset at Clinton administration labor policies. Others, like the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 600,000 workers, abstained from voting.

Gore nonetheless carried the majority of the 700 delegates, who approved his endorsement on a voice vote after it was sanctioned by the AFL-CIO’s executive council earlier Wednesday.

In a speech to convention delegates, Gore contrasted his and his senator father’s support of labor with the positions of both Republican Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the leading GOP presidential candidate, and Bush’s father, former President George Bush.

“Let me remind those who conveniently forget,” Gore said. “There was a Reagan-Bush recession. There was a Bush-Quayle recession. But there’s never been a Clinton-Gore recession.”

Gore’s sole challenger for the Democratic nomination, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, fought to block the endorsement, although he had no realistic prospects of winning it himself. After the vote, his campaign released a statement saying Bradley’s “commitment to working men and women and the role that labor can play in their lives is unwavering.”

For Gore, the endorsement guarantees armies of volunteers in several early presidential contests, particularly those in Iowa, California and New York. In both California and Iowa in 1998, early labor endorsements boosted the ultimately successful gubernatorial bids of Democrats Gray Davis and Tom Vilsack.

All told, the unions that make up the AFL-CIO have set aside $46 million for political operations leading up to the 2000 presidential election--a plan that would exceed a 1998 effort that included sending out 9.5 million pieces of mail and initiating 5.5 million phone calls. State and local labor operations sent out additional millions of mailers and established a breathtaking array of phone banks.

Gore’s endorsement also came as welcome good news for the vice president’s campaign, which has lost ground nationally to Bradley and has been buffeted by criticism of the candidate, the campaign structure and even the location of campaign headquarters.

In recent weeks, he has ditched some of his campaign staff, moved the remaining operation from Washington to Nashville and begun orating in a more personal, less bureaucratic style.

The new approach was evident Wednesday from the first moments of his appearance. Gore entered from the rear of the hall through a chute of supporters, bouncing frenetically from one to another like a shopper given 60 seconds to fill a cart with free groceries. Salsa music boomed from the background.

Onstage, he mocked George W. Bush’s recent statement that he would approve a federal minimum wage hike only if states could opt out.

“I guess that’s Gov. Bush’s idea of ‘compassionate conservatism,’ ” said Gore, alluding to Bush’s theme. “I’m for a minimum wage increase in every state, including the state of Texas.”

Gore did not mention his Democratic challenger by name, but he repeatedly invoked his loyalty to labor and Democrats. He used words that clearly slapped at Bradley for leaving the Senate after Republicans took over Capitol Hill and for briefly flirting with an independent presidential bid.

“When everything that matters to working families is at stake, we cannot walk away,” Gore said. “When the Republicans want to put all of our progress on their special-interest chopping block, we have only one choice and that is to stay and fight.”

Even with the endorsement, Gore still has fences to mend.

Teamsters President James P. Hoffa told the delegates before the endorsement that his 1.4 million members need to know more about Gore’s and Bradley’s labor positions. Afterward, striding out of the convention hall, he said the decision was “not against Gore. It’s just too early.”

Others were more colorful in their objections. “In the South we always say, ‘Don’t wrap that pig, weigh it,’ ” Teamster Jerry Vincent told his fellow delegates.

But the majority of the union leaders and delegates heeded the appeal made on Gore’s behalf by Gerald W. McEntee, international president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees. “This indeed is no rush to judgment,” McEntee said. “This is about a man who has been there for us from the very beginning.”

Gore barely tried Wednesday to reach out to his labor opponents; he offered only three sentences in a 35-minute speech to differences over trade policy that have angered the Teamsters and others. Some delegates said that Gore’s biggest albatross remains Clinton.

“They still see Gore as part of the administration, rather than the candidate,” federal employees’ union president Bobby L. Harnage said in an interview. His union, the AFGE, abstained from the endorsement. “It’s going to be difficult for him to put in that distance.”