Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.
John Edwards' campaign for president is suddenly going more according to plan, as he strode into Nevada Tuesday touting the endorsement of three big unions - steelworkers, mine workers, and most important for the Nevada caucus, carpenters.
Together the three represent 1.8million workers and retirees nationally and give Edwards a small army of volunteers to knock on doors, stuff envelopes and do the other work that wins elections.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton recently won two big endorsements of her own, from transportation workers and machinists, who together have 825,000 members and retirees, 2,500 of whom live in Nevada.
The question for Edwards is whether the endorsements are the start of a cavalcade of support, or merely the anticipated backing of old-line industrial unions, which Edwards has been courting for years. More to the point: Will Edwards win the endorsement of the Culinary Union Local 226, whose 60,000 members and potent political organization promise to play a big role in the Nevada presidential caucus ?
Regardless, the carpenters union, which has 12,000 members here, is known as one of the most politically organized in Nevada.
"Their members are used to organizing politically and showing up at political events, and they sure could be effective in a caucus," said Dan Hart, a Democratic political consultant to the state teachers' union and former consultant to the carpenters.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and vice presidential nominee, has staked his candidacy on the four early states: Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, attempting a strategy used with success by Jimmy Carter in 1976. Edwards was born in South Carolina, and he is counting on significant labor support here and in Iowa, where the steelworkers have 8,600 members.
Union support can be a significant asset in a caucus, wherein party members show up at a specific time and place and must publicly voice their support for a candidate. Labor unions are expected to drive turnout in the Nevada caucus especially.
Edwards rode to his Nevada campaign headquarters in a taxicab - the steelworkers union represents 3,100 cabdrivers and factory workers here - and made a short speech.
He said as president he would work for economic fairness, which he said meant a tougher line on trade. Countries would be given access to American markets only after agreeing to labor and environmental standards.
Also, he said enacting a universal health care system would remove from the negotiating table one of the most contentious items in collective bargaining.
"I will work with every fiber of my body to strengthen the union movement in America," Edwards said. "This country needs a president who walks out on the White House lawn and talks to Americans about the importance of labor unions."
Edwards also pledged to enact "real labor law reform," part of which is passing the Employee Free Choice Act. That law would make it easier for unions to organize shops by bypassing secret ballot elections, which give employers a chance to campaign against unionization. Instead, workers could express their preference simply by checking a box on a card at any time, sharply curtailing the opportunity employers have to make counter arguments.
Edwards also favors federal protection for striking workers, preventing replacement workers from crossing picket lines.
Nationally, the endorsements provide a big boost, though they come as no surprise given Edwards ' assiduous courting of labor, said Jennifer Duffy, analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Indeed, Edwards was in Las Vegas in spring 2006, when thousands of mine workers here for their international convention stomped their feet for him.
"Our workers were anxious to endorse him and wanted to get working," said Leo Gerard, president of the steelworkers union. "His life's work has been for working people, as a lawyer, as an elected official and over the last four years walking picket lines." The steelworkers union has 18,000 members in the four early states and a political team of 5,000 members that will help the Edwards campaign organize, Gerard said.
Duffy said Edwards is in need of manpower, and he got it.
David Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan with close ties to organized labor and Edwards' national campaign manager, said the endorsements reflect "an important shift in the race" as union members recruit family and friends to work and caucus for Edwards.
Edwards' Nevada chairman was more blunt, all but calling the endorsements a saving grace. In an interview, Assemblyman Richard "Tick" Segerblom said the endorsements provided a much-needed boost to the campaign after it lost a handful of paid organizers who were sent to Iowa. Without as much paid organizing muscle, the campaign would lean on its union support, he said.
Asked about the state of the Nevada campaign, Segerblom said, "Compared to yesterday, it ' s fantastic."
The Edwards campaign has been touting his electability lately as a chief asset. He does better in many matchups against Republican frontrunners. Even though he has moved sharply to the left since 2004, he is still seen by many voters as more moderate than his chief Democratic rivals, Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who will be in Las Vegas Thursday.
By winning major labor endorsements, Edwards' campaign gains a measure of much-needed viability.
Up next for Edwards: Can he win the endorsement of unions representing service industry workers, including the Service Employees International Union, the largest union in America, as well as UNITE HERE, the parent union of the Culinary.
Duffy, of the Cook Report, noted these unions tend to have different demographics and different issue priorities, and so it's unclear whether labor will speak with one voice this election.
Bruce Raynor, co-president of UNITE HERE, representing 450,000 hotel and apparel workers, told The Wall Street Journal last week that Edwards is his favorite candidate and that the union would be endorsing someone soon.
At a Culinary event Tuesday, Raynor told the Sun, "We're still working on our process," before turning and walking away.
Pilar Weiss, the Culinary's political director, has noted a UNITE HERE endorsement wouldn't bind the local to the same candidate. Edwards is known to be close with UNITE HERE leadership.
But Weiss' insistence on Culinary's independence would seem to imply that even if Edwards wins the endorsement of UNITE HERE, he will need to win over Culinary, as well. Culinary will make a decision in December, Weiss has said.
If nothing else, Hart said, the recent spate of endorsements will likely speed up the process all around, as unions won't want to be left out of the nominating process: "We're into the fall, a few months away, and things are going to start happening more quickly."
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