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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (3740)	7/29/2003 11:32:06 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

Gephardt to Pick Up Another Union Endorsement Tuesday, July 29, 2003 WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt (search) is picking up another union endorsement - his seventh. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Technicians (search), or IATSE, will officially announce its support of the Missouri congressman on Tuesday in New York. The union has more than 100,000 members in the United States and Canada. Union President Thomas C. Short said Monday that Gephardt "has demonstrated through words and most importantly his actions, that he supports working families. He has fought to protect the rights of unions to organize, bargain and represent their members." The AFL-CIO's executive council will meet next week in Chicago to gauge the political temperature of its 65 affiliate unions and whether a single labor endorsement is even possible. An endorsement likely won't happen unless a candidate can receive the backing of unions representing two-thirds of all rank-and-file members. Should the AFL-CIO (search) choose to enter the primary fray, Gephardt, a longtime ally of organized labor, is considered the most likely candidate to get an endorsement. The federation has granted only two early endorsements: Walter Mondale in 1984 and Al Gore in 2000. Gephardt has made clear that he wants to join that list and fills his schedule with visits to union halls and meetings with labor leaders and their members. So far, his support has come from mostly smaller unions. The largest is from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (search), with 720,000 members. Most of the large unions that spend a lot of money on elections have not chosen among the nine Democratic hopefuls. Some are waiting for the AFL-CIO to decide if it will endorse before acting. Concern among labor leaders about whether Gephardt could beat President Bush next year and his disappointing showing in fund raising in the last quarter - $1 million less than his campaign had predicted - has emboldened some of his rivals to pursue union support. Rival Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut senator, will speak to union leaders gathered in Florida on Tuesday for an organizing meeting.

To: John Carragher who wrote (3740)	7/30/2003 10:28:25 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

Backers pressure Gore to run again next year hillnews.com By Alexander Bolton Former Vice-President Al Gore is coming under pressure from political supporters and friends to jump into the 2004 presidential campaign even though he ruled himself out in December. Gore’s spokesperson denied that there was any change of plans, but a former Democratic National Committee official close to Gore told The Hill he believes the former vice president may enter the Democratic primary this fall. A second Gore confidant, Steve Armistead, a local Tennessee government official, said: “I think he’d like to grit his teeth and jump back in, but I can’t speak for him. I don’t think he liked the medicine he got from the Supreme Court.” Armistead, a good friend of Gore’s for more than 40 years, said Gore has not indicated to him whether he would run. But he added: “I’ve had a lot of people that know him real well tell me that he ought to get back in. I hear it daily. ‘He got out too soon.’ ‘I wish Al never got out of the race.’” Talk of Gore joining the race could be a trial balloon to test the atmosphere for a 2004 White House run. Gore lost in 2000 to George W. Bush in an election finally decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The former DNC official, who was active in Gore’s 2000 campaign, said his prediction of another Gore campaign is based on more than a hunch. But he declined to offer specific evidence. He believes, as other Gore confidants do, that the political climate has changed significantly since December, making Bush more vulnerable to defeat in his bid for a second term. “Things have dramatically changed since his announcement,” said the official. “Bush has lied to the country, no one is articulating a foreign policy that’s resonating.” However, Kiki McLean, Gore’s spokesperson, denied the possibility that her boss would declare his candidacy, adding his name to the nine already declared candidates and automatically moving into their front ranks. “He is not a candidate for president, he’s made his position known and he has no intention of changing his mind,” said McLean. Surveys show that Gore would have a good chance of capturing the nomination, even if he entered the race only a few months before the nation’s first primary next January in New Hampshire. A Time/CNN poll conducted between May 21 and 22 showed that if Gore changed his mind and ran for president, 40 percent of Democrats and Independents who lean Democratic nationwide would vote for him. The Democratic runners-up, Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), and Rep. Dick Gephardt (Mo.), would each draw 7 percent of that vote. A Washington Post-ABC News poll from mid-July showed that Bush’s support has dropped sharply amid growing concerns of U.S. casualties in Iraq and questions over whether the administration exaggerated Iraq’s efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Yet Democrats so far have failed to capitalize on Bush’s potential weakness. A new poll commissioned by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council shows that the Democratic Party is losing support among white men. A USA Today/Gallup Poll released yesterday shows that no more than 20 percent of the voters likely to pull the Democratic lever back any of the declared candidates. The fluid situation has apparently kept a core group of Democratic fundraisers who played key roles in Gore’s 2000 campaign to remain aloof from the current candidates despite being courted intensely. A former Gore campaign aide who surveyed fundraising data on politicalmoneyline.com noted that nine Gore supporters — eight of whom served as finance chairman, or deputy finance chairman at the DNC during the 2000 election — have by and large sat out of the Democratic primary. Two of the three persons who had served as finance chairmen at the DNC in 2000 have contributed to presidential candidates, but otherwise remain uninvolved. Carol Pensky has given $2,000 to Kerry and Joel Hyatt has given $2,000 to Lieberman this year. Hyatt said in an e-mail that he’s too busy to become more involved. The third finance chairman, Joe Cari, has yet to give to any of the candidates. Of the fundraisers who served as deputy finance chairs at the DNC during Gore’s run, Pamela Eakes has given $750 to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Christopher Korge has given $2,000 to Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Alan Kessler has given $1,500 to Lieberman. Ken Jarin and Peter Knight have yet to give. In interviews, Eakes and Kessler said they are not yet committed to a candidate. Another Gore official, who also worked on the 1996 and 2000 campaigns, said: “These folks are playing in a non-material, insignificant way. These were the top fundraisers for Gore and the party in 2000 and they are basically keeping their wallets shut and more importantly not asking their friends [and] colleagues to help with an ’04 candidate.”