Gephardt Set to Endorse Kerry
Thursday, February 05, 2004
NEW YORK -- John Kerry (search) secured the endorsement of former presidential rival Dick Gephardt (search) on Thursday, a blockbuster embrace that paid immediate dividends for the Democratic front-runner's bid to rally organized labor behind his candidacy.
Kerry spokesman David Wade said the Missouri lawmaker will give Kerry his backing on Friday in Warren, Mich., a blue-collar suburb of Detroit, and travel with the front-runner to Tennessee.
He confirmed the endorsement as two labor officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an alliance of labor groups formed by the Teamsters and more than a dozen industrial unions planned to endorse Kerry. The Alliance for Economic Justice (search) made the decision after a morning meeting in Boston, where Kerry began his day.
A Democratic official, familiar with the talks, said Gephardt urged the group to back Kerry. The coalition was formed in the fall by unions that supported Gephardt after it became clear that some of the larger public and service sector unions did not want to give him a laborwide endorsement from the AFL-CIO (search). They include the steelworkers, laborers, machinists, ironworkers and others.
Kerry has tightened his grip on the front-runner title with back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire and victories in five of the seven states that voted on Tuesday. The Gephardt endorsement caps a series of endorsements for Kerry Thursday, including Maine's governor, the two Michigan senators and former Senate majority leader George Mitchell (search), D-Maine.
Michigan's governor and both of its senators plan to make their endorsements official on Friday.
Howard Dean, the race's front-runner just six weeks ago, is in danger of losing support from three major unions backing him -- the Services Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
Although they have publicly pledged to back Dean at least through the Feb. 17 Wisconsin primary, labor sources say the unions' leaders are discussing how much -- and how much longer -- to support the former Vermont governor.
Kerry's new labor endorsements won't be announced until next week or the following. Presidents of the unions wanted time to brief their members before making the endorsement public, the sources said.
Gephardt dropped out of the race last month after a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. He said at the time he intended to support the party's nominee, but said he had no immediate plans to endorse any of the contenders.
Gephardt, the 14-term congressman, gained the support of more than 20 unions with more than 5 million members. He failed in a bid to win the backing of the AFL-CIO, though, when Dean collected the support of SEIU and AFSCME, two of the largest members of the labor federation.
Rival John Edwards, campaigning in Tennesse, called Gephardt a "wonderful man," but aruged that "if you look at the history of endorsements in this campaign, they haven't had a lot of sway with voters, which is understandable. Voters make their own decisions."
Among the former presidential candidates, Carol Moseley Braun has endorsed Howard Dean. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida has not indicated his preference in the Democratic primary. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut exited the race on Tuesday.