Machinists Endorse Gephardt
Candidate Needs Union Support to Win 2004 Iowa Caucus
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45427-2003Jul11.html
Saturday, July 12, 2003; Page A05
SIOUX CITY, Iowa, July 11 -- A major international trade union endorsed the presidential bid of Rep. Richard A. Gephardt today, giving the Missouri Democrat a welcome lift after a disappointing three months of fundraising.
The 720,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers flew Gephardt from here to Cincinnati to hand him the biggest endorsement of his young campaign for the 2004 nomination. "It now enables this union to put at the disposal of the candidate all the functions we can do as a labor union to educate, mobilize and make a difference" in the Democratic primary and general election, Machinists union President R. Thomas Buffenbarger said in a conference call with reporters.
The endorsement could prove particularly important in Midwest industrial states and Iowa, where several thousand machinists work and live. It means much less in New Hampshire, where there are only several hundred machinists, and other key states where union membership is low.
Either way, it's timely for Gephardt. He raised less than $4.5 million in the quarter that ended June 30, which likely will land him in fifth place among the Democratic contenders for that period.
Moreover, former Vermont governor Howard Dean is gaining momentum in Iowa, where Gephardt won the first-in-the-nation caucus in 1988 and needs to win again in January. Gephardt is considered the man to beat in the Iowa, but he will need strong union support.
Dean won the support of many Machinists union members with his fiery speech before the group today but fell short of obtaining the endorsement.
Dean's growing popularity -- with liberals in general and with unionized workers in particular -- complicates Gephardt's bid to win the biggest union prize: the AFL-CIO endorsement. Its blessing counts for much more than the endorsements of its many member groups, including the Machinists union. Many Democratic activists think the AFL-CIO will not endorse until the field narrows.
Gephardt said he is not expecting to win the AFL-CIO's blessing this early in the process.
"I want it, I seek it, and I am trying to obtain it," he said, "but I am doing it one union at a time." So far, he has picked up the endorsements of the nearly 150,000-member union of office and professional employees, the 135,000-member Iron Workers union, the 100,000-member Bricklayers union, 100,000-member International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers, and the 50,000-member union for workers who build railroad tracks and bridges.
Gephardt, whose campaign hinges on winning union states in the Midwest, plans to meet Saturday with local machinists across the state in Cedar Rapids and promote his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, freer trade with China and greater trade powers for the president. "My whole belief is, if you are going beat President Bush, you've got to beat him in the industrial heartland of the country," he said.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company |
