Unions Look for a Winner When Endorsing

[Omaha Steve]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ie3QgpqdnUauVyCI2cLZRPwRzdTw

WASHINGTON (AP) — By all accounts, Democrats John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich should be racking up union endorsements.

They've walked picket lines, denounced trade agreements, bashed corporations and curried favor with unions large and small. In joint appearances with other Democratic candidates, they routinely get the loudest applause from the union rank and file.

If loyalty and reliability were the only qualifications for an endorsement, even union officials say Kucinich and Edwards would get them all. But with unions starting to line up behind candidates four months before the voting, the word that counts most seems to be "electability."

"We are in a situation where we have a lot of friends running for this position," said Edward J. McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has not endorsed anyone.

"There are people that we've been involved with for years and years in the Senate who we know, and there are others we know that have been involved probably a shorter period of time but just as enthusiastically. They're all good candidates. But the key to what we should be about is winning the election in 2008."

Winning the presidency, not the Democratic primary, seems to be the goal of the unions that have already endorsed candidates.

FULL srory at link.