(2 of 2)
To combat the well-organized incumbent, labor supplemented its usual campaign tools—phone banks, flyers, canvassing—with an array of high-tech methods. "They've moved into the 20th century politically," says Washington-based Labor Consultant Victor Kamber. "Now they use direct mail and laser-printed letters. They show videodisks in union halls." Two years ago, aided by computers, the AFL-CIO started to pinpoint unregistered members and sign them up. In Alabama, registration among members in one Sheet Metal Workers' local shot from 40% to more than 90%. Last month, AFL-CIO President Kirkland took to the road in a "solidarity van," going on a two-week, get-out-the-vote odyssey across the industrial Rustbelt.
The fact that labor's love lost in spite of this intensive mobilization drive (estimated worth: $40 million) seems not to have sparked much soul searching among union leaders. They roundly reject the notion that labor forced an unelectable candidate on the Democratic Party or that they bear any responsibility for his defeat. If anything, they say, Mondale dug his own grave by not campaigning directly on labor issues. Many union officials maintain that the interest ignited by the early endorsement greatly strengthened their political apparatus. "The process produced its intended result," says AFL-CIO Spokesman Murray Seeger. "It's given us a kind of excitement, a kind of unity we never had."
In the view of union leaders, Mondale's defeat is only a temporary setback. "Labor will take a black eye on this," admits Kamber. "But four years from now, when it backs a winner, there will be stories about its amazing comeback." Indeed, the union brass seems eager to make early endorsement an established policy. "I haven't found anybody saying it shouldn't have been done," says Richard Murphy, legislative director of the 650,000-member Service Employees International Union. "I hope we do exactly the same thing next time." The danger, of course, is that the unions will keep choosing candidates who are able to win the primaries but not the general election.
For the moment, most experts do not believe that will happen, largely because of the lessons those outside labor may learn from Mondale's 1984 defeat. "Future candidates would be crazy to go after a labor endorsement before the primaries," says William Schneider, an elections expert at the American Enterprise Institute. Concurs Analyst Baron: "Labor has clearly reduced its clout in the party in the future. A lot of state chairmen who were skeptical, but went along, are now saying, 'We won't let them do that to us again.' " —By Susan Tifft. Reported by Jay Branegan/Washington, with other bureaus