Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Liberals are antsy. They haven't seen Democratic voter enthusiasm like this in a long time and they'd rather not wait until the party's August convention to harness it to the party's presidential nominee. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are still fiercely competing just when liberal activists and labor leaders wanted to mobilize voters and gear up their message for the general election. Activists who gathered at a Washington hotel this week said Obama and Clinton have energized the electorate with their prolonged contest, but several warned that a convention fight could be fractious and leave little...

WASHINGTON -- Big labor rolled out an ambitious $40 million plan Wednesday to help Democrats win key races in 21 states, including Connecticut - but analysts say the union effort offers few guarantees of success. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and political director Karen Ackerman methodically detailed how unions would blitz the targeted states with phone calls, volunteer recruitment, e-mail pleas and special efforts to talk to union family members about candidates With the Democrats needing net gains of 15 House and six Senate seats to control Congress for the first time in 12 years, Sweeney talked tough. "This Labor...

Given a moment alone with Sen. John Kerry, the president of Pittsburgh's firefighters union did what has become his No. 1 job. He asked for help in fighting city spending cuts that would put 168 of his members out of work. Friends of labor such as Kerry and union leaders across the nation are getting the call from Pittsburgh, as the cradle of the union movement once again becomes a battleground for workers. Local labor leaders frame the fight over Pittsburgh budget cuts as a struggle for organized labor's future everywhere.

WASHINGTON - Democrat John Kerry "doesn't warm anybody up," while President Bush is seen as likable and strong, according to focus groups of undecided union voters conducted for the AFL-CIO.

<p>WAUSAU, Wis. -- Presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, who has been a firm supporter of free-trade agreements during 20 years in Congress, is campaigning as a champion of labor and workers as he prepares to receive the AFL-CIO's endorsement Thursday.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — With Dick Gephardt's endorsement of John Kerry (search) on Friday, the Massachusetts senator is hoping to win some of the labor support that backed Gephardt before he dropped out of the race for president, but some experts wonder if union backing has the same oomph as it once did.</p>

California's recall election was bad news for Democrats in more ways that one. Not only did Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger manage to take control of the statehouse, but both he and conservative Tom McClintock drew unprecedented support from key Democratic voting blocks. Nationwide, more than 90 percent of African-Americans voted for Al Gore in 2000. But two years later, according to a Zogby survey, 23 percent of black Californians backed a Republican in the recall race [17 percent for Arnold, 6 percent for McClintock.] Worse still for Dems, nearly 40 percent of Hispanics voted for either Arnold or McClintock, who garnered...

Recapturing the loyalty of blue-collar and moderate-income Democrats has emerged as one of Gov. Davis' most pressing problems as the recall election approaches. In both public and private polls, Democrats with less income and education have displayed much higher support for the recall than more affluent and college-educated party members. Even Democrats who belong to labor unions, ordinarily one of the party's most loyal constituencies, have been abandoning the governor in greater numbers than other Democrats, according to the most recent Los Angeles Times poll. "There's no burning enthusiasm for the governor," acknowledged Miguel Contreras, executive secretary and treasurer of...

<p>"It will take an extraordinary united all-people's front with a movement on the ground to defeat the Bush right-wing agenda in 2004," declares the online manifesto. "It can be done with the combination of the labor vote, the women's vote, and African-American and Latino vote, combined with the youth vote, the peace vote, the environmental vote, the senior vote, the farm vote, etc., all of whom are pledged to work as they never have before."</p>