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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Labor pains, continued
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
 |  Making nice: Organized labor reunites today after a clumsy primary season that had union political support scattered among the Democratic candidates. |
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| | ON CNN TV | 
Stay with CNN-USA all night as returns come in from the primaries in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Our political team of correspondents and analysts will have updates and reports on all the action.
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 VIDEO |
 CNN's Bill Schneider analyzes the results of new CNN/USA Today/Gallup polling.
 CNN's Candy Crowley on the war of words between George Bush and John Kerry.
 CNN's John Zarrella on what makes Cuban-Americans key to a Florida victory.
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| TUESDAY'S PRIMARIES |  Florida: 177 delegates to the national Democratic convention at stake; polls are open 7 a.m to 8 p.m. ET.
Louisiana: 60 delegates at stake; polls are open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
Mississippi: 33 delegates at stake; polls are open 8 a.m to 8 p.m. ET.
Texas: 195 delegates at stake; polls are open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
When is your primary? For more key dates in the 2004 election season, see our special America Votes 2004 Election Calendar
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There are four Southern primaries today, two with juicy political implications. But the story we're watching most closely today is the awkward reunion of organized labor, which gathers in south Florida to make sense out of a particularly clumsy primary roadshow that left them divided, dispirited and, in some cases, doubting their ability to defeat President Bush.
If one head should roll at the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort, sources say it could be that of Gerald McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who may face a challenge as chair of the AFL-CIO's political education committee after the way he handled his union's endorsement -- and abandonment -- of Howard Dean.
Criticism of McEntee, who as chairman of the committee controls labor's multimillion-dollar voter-turnout operation, comes strongest from unions that had backed Dick Gephardt. "There's not a lot of love here for [McEntee]," a chief political strategist for a major Gephardt union told the Grind. "There are some general presidents openly talking about removing him as chairman, several of them think he defaulted on his role during the primary, bouncing all over the place. President Sweeney has to make a decision about how to handle it."
McEntee, a close ally of Sweeney's, arrived at the AFL-CIO executive council's annual winter meeting last year as the ultimate power-broker, a highly touted successor to President John Sweeney and an '04 Dem kingmaker (who, at the time, was leaning toward John Kerry as the most "electable" candidate). Still living off his maverick endorsement of Bill Clinton over Tom Harkin in 1992, he was the man to see.
One year later, McEntee is in deep, but not insurmountable, trouble. "I think Gerry's had a hard time, obviously. There are people who feel like the process wasn't as fair as it could have been," Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, told the Grind.
Stern, whose union joined McEntee in backing Dean, has largely avoided the criticism McEntee faces because he made sure to note that his endorsement resulted from a vote of his left-leaning board. Not so McEntee, who followed the same process as Stern but suffered from the widespread impression he was leading from the top down. He also was not shy about sharing his ever-evolving rationale with the media, moving from Kerry early last year to Wesley Clark, then to Dean.
One day after Dean quit the primary, of course, McEntee, who had yanked his endorsement a week earlier, sat down with the New York Times and declared that Dean was "nuts."
Nice.
Stern said criticism of McEntee stems also from Gephardt backers who believe he single-handedly blocked the full labor federation from endorsing Gephardt at a time when such backing could have made a difference in the Missourian's campaign. "But the bottom line is that Dick never had the 2/3 votes he needed to win the [AFL-CIO's] endorsement," Stern said. "You could have called all the meetings you want, and the numbers would never have changed."
Criticism comes from outside the House of Labor as well. "McEntee's double-cross probably scotches whatever hopes he had to become the next president of the AFL-CIO," David Broder wrote in the Washington Post last week. "Loyalty is supposed to mean something in politics and in life, and he failed the test big-time."
For the record, an AFSCME spokesman dismissed speculation about McEntee's woes as "idle chatter." He noted that McEntee is scheduled to preside over his committee's meeting tomorrow morning and will hold a news conference in Florida with Sweeney and Gephardt following the meeting.
Larry Scanlon, AFSCME's political director, didn't return several phone calls from the Grind seeking comment.
Now, to John Kerry, who by all accounts is showering his newfound labor friends with constant phone calls and made sure to schedule campaign stops earlier this month (in Atlanta and Oakland) designed to give local unions a national platform. Kerry will address the AFL-CIO meeting Wednesday via satellite. Gephardt and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will also address the gathering.
"We're pretty unified [behind Kerry], which is incredible if you think about how screwed up the primary was," said Mike Mathis, political director of the Teamsters, which backed Gephardt. "Kerry has been really good about touching base with people. He's good at making phone calls, he checks in with a lot of labor people."
But in the end, of course, labor's unity has resulted more from who Kerry's not, than who he is. "He's not Dick Gephardt, sure. But he's also not George W. Bush," one labor wag said.
And ultimately, eight months before Election Day, labor leaders say that's the most important factor.
"We've reached the right place after a rather rocky road," Stern said. "Our armies marched to John Kerry's side at different times. But somewhat like 'Lord of the Rings,' we're all on the battlefield now together."
So, wait ... If labor is the army fighting the evil empire, does that mean Kerry's Treebeard?
Hmmm. Now that you mention it ...
States going to the polls
Also today, of course, people are voting. In Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana.
A total of 465 delegates are at stake, which at this point is not enough for Kerry technically to clinch the 2,162 delegate votes needed to win the nomination. He could reach that magic number later this week or early next week.
Here's a little "Clip 'n Save" for you as you watch tonight's returns come in.
Florida
Delegates at stake: 177Poll hours: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ETLouisiana
Delegates at stake: 60Poll hours: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. ETMississippi
Delegates at stake: 33Poll hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ETTexas
Delegates at stake: 195Poll hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. ETTotal delegates at stake today: 465
22 percent of the 2,162 delegate votes needed to win the nomination11 percent of the 4,322 total delegate votes at the Democratic conventionTotal number of pledged delegates selected pre-March 9: 2,049Total number of pledged delegates selected including March 9 contests: 2,514Total delegates needed to win the nomination: 2,162 
