There's Something About Bill: No Love from Labor

Guv has yet to snag union support.

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Nevada's most powerful union-Culinary Workers Local 226-still hasn't picked its presidential pony. The Nov. 15 CNN-sponsored Las Vegas debate served as Gov. Bill Richardson's latest opportunity to sway the leadership of the 60,000-strong strategically placed early-state union. Local 226 is expected to endorse a candidate sometime after Thanksgiving.

Last month, Richardson made a direct pitch to the national leadership of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, also in Vegas.

"I will be an activist president on your behalf," Richardson pledged, according to an Oct. 23 Associated Press report.

But like the culinary workers, the UA's 5,000 Nevada members, plus 300,000 more nationwide-one of the largest building trade federations around-is still sitting on its hardworking hands.

None of this comes as a surprise to Christine Trujillo, president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

"No one in labor that I know dislikes Richardson," she says. "Most respect him and tout his pro-labor record, but with only $8 million in the bank versus what the others have, labor is just looking at who can carry the campaign all the way to the end."

Trujillo softens that brutal reality by pointing out that the state's labor federation symbolically endorsed Richardson back in May as a "favorite son," even though no financial support came with it. And so far Richardson has been shut out of the major international union endorsement game.

AFSCME, the country's largest federation of public employees with 1.4 million members, endorsed Hillary Clinton on Oct. 31. John Edwards has won the backing of the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union in 10 states, including Iowa and New Hampshire. On Nov. 15, Barack Obama snagged the backing of the United Auto Workers Region 4, which includes 30,000 members and retirees in Iowa. Even Richardson's fellow second-tier dweller Chris Dodd can crow over his endorsement by the 281,000-strong International Association of Fire Fighters.

In a hasty phone interview, Richardson campaign spokesman Tom Reynolds doesn't speculate on why his guy hasn't won any major union endorsements despite a solidarity-soaked record as governor.

"I think that's a question that should be directed at the labor unions," he says curtly.


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