Firefighters4Bush.tripod.com
Posted on 09/19/2003 10:14:21 AM PDT by areafiftyone
The International Association of Fire Fighters will endorse Senator John Kerry for president next week, union officials said yesterday, making it the first union to endorse a Democratic presidential candidate other than Representative Richard A. Gephardt.
Harold Schaitberger, the firefighters' president, declined to discuss his union's plans, but labor leaders who have talked with him said the union would back Mr. Kerry because its leaders thought the senator was the most electable Democrat.
The firefighters' endorsement, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday in Washington, is bound to hurt Mr. Gephardt's efforts to win the coveted endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., union leaders said.
In an interview on Wednesday, John J. Sweeney, president of the labor federation, said Mr. Gephardt did not yet have the two-thirds support needed for the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s endorsement when its leaders meet on Oct. 14 in Washington.
But Mr. Sweeney, who voiced enthusiasm about Mr. Gephardt, said it was still possible that Mr. Gephardt could gain the two-thirds backing by the meeting. He said as many as 30 unions might endorse Mr. Gephardt by that date, more than double the 12, including the machinists and steelworkers, that have already done so.
From the start, Mr. Gephardt's strategists have pushed hard for the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s endorsement, knowing that he has been a faithful friend of labor and that such an endorsement could give him a leg up in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Labor leaders said Mr. Schaitberger had questioned Mr. Gephardt's electability and planned to campaign all-out for Mr. Kerry. In two weeks, these labor leaders said, Mr. Schaitberger, whose union has 260,000 members and is the largest for firefighters, plans to appear with Mr. Kerry in New Hampshire, the first primary state, alongside hundreds of firefighters.
The firefighters' message could carry more weight than that of many far larger labor unions because its members carry a special stature since the Sept. 11 attacks, when 343 firefighters died at the World Trade Center.
Robert Gibbs, the Kerry campaign spokesman, declined yesterday to comment on the endorsement.
Mr. Sweeney said one factor making it hard for Mr. Gephardt to obtain the necessary two-thirds was that three of the nation's largest unions — the Service Employees International Union, the United Automobile Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — did not appear likely to back an endorsement of him on Oct. 14.
Nonetheless, Mr. Sweeney said that if three other large unions — the American Federation of Teachers, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — supported a Gephardt endorsement on Oct. 14, that could put him close to the two-thirds needed.
Union leaders close to Mr. Sweeney said he was weighing whether to try to build a two-thirds consensus for Mr. Gephardt. These officials said it would be embarrassing to Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Gephardt if Mr. Sweeney were to make a major effort, only to find that he could not muster the support.
Spokesmen for the electrical workers, auto workers and communications workers said yesterday that their unions were still polling their members and did not appear close to endorsing anyone.
Steve Murphy, Mr. Gephardt's campaign manager, said: "We know that getting the A.F.L.-C.I.O. endorsement is a bit of a long shot because you have to get two-thirds, and it's now nine candidates to one opposed to us getting the two-thirds. Nonetheless, we're doing very well with labor support. It's still 12 to 0, and we have more union support on the way."
Several union leaders said it would be awkward if the A.F.L.-C.I.O. endorsed Mr. Gephardt without the auto workers and state, county and municipal workers joining in, because they are the most influential, politically active unions in Iowa.
Democratic strategists agree that winning the Iowa caucus is important to Mr. Gephardt because it is next to his home state, Missouri, and he won the caucus in his failed 1988 bid for the Democratic nomination.
Well, unlike McClintock supporters, at least these guys accept reality when it kicks them in the mouth like a mule.
"Best" socialist? (And that's being charitable.) I'd've thought Lieberman...and he's a girly man.
With the behavior of many of the RATs after 9/11, I am shocked that any firefighter would support a single RAT for any office. The only hope here is that the union, not individual firefighters support Ketchup Boy Kerry.
Cool!
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