HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Feb. 24 — Four Democratic presidential candidates competed today for support from A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders amid indications that Representative Richard A. Gephardt, whose campaign is largely staked to labor support, may have difficulty winning the federation's backing.þþBased on the past practice of the union group, Mr. Gephardt will need to win the votes of two-thirds of its 65-member general board of union leaders, weighted by how many members each union represents, to win the umbrella organization's backing. Several federation officials said that although Mr. Gephardt, of Missouri, enjoyed significant support among union members, that would be a difficult barrier for him or any other contender to overcome.þþMr. Gephardt noted today that it was a long time before the board would vote, probably in the fall at the earliest. He added that he hoped to nail down support by that time. In an indication of the importance that Mr. Gephardt attaches to the unions, he and his wife, Jane, have been virtually camped out here in the the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa, where the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is holding its annual winter meeting.þþÿWe're aggressively working labor and we would very much like to have their support,ÿ a senior adviser to Mr. Gephardt, Steve Elmendorf, said. ÿAnd I feel pretty good about it.ÿþþSome of Mr. Gephardt's rivals sought to make his task a little harder. Two senators who are in the running, John Edwards of North Carolina and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, spent the morning pressing for support from union leaders. Carol Moseley-Braun, a former senator from Illinois who is also likely to run for president, also appeared.þþAides to Mr. Gephardt's rivals said they doubted, considering the close ties that he has built with labor in his years in Congress, that they would be able to win the endorsement. But they said they hoped to pick off enough unions to prevent Mr. Gephardt from meeting the two-thirds mark, thus handing him what could be a significant defeat.þþIf the federation does not make an endorsement, its 65 unions would be free to move on their own.þþMr. Edwards said that he was ÿgoing to compete in every way for all these unions,ÿ but that he did not expect to win the endorsement. He noted his rivals had ÿlonger relations with them, so I have a lot of work to do.ÿþþþ
Source: NY Times
