Sources: Sen. Harkin announcing support for Gore
September 5, 1999
Web posted at: 10:25 p.m. EDT (0225 GMT)
DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin will endorse Vice President Al Gore's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday at
a series of Labor Day events, his press secretary and two sources close to the vice president said Sunday.
Harkin and Gore will attend events in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Dubuque, Iowa, on Monday.
Gore already has received the endorsements of Christie Vilsack, (the wife
of Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack), U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell (Iowa's sole
Democratic congressman), state Attorney General Tom Miller and more than
two-thirds of the state's 64 Democratic state legislators.
According to Gore's Iowa state manager, Steve Hildebrand, the endorsement
is significant not only because Harkin is the highest-ranking Democrat in the
state and the only Democrat to be elected three times from Iowa to the U.S.
Senate, but because of Harkin's closeness to key Democratic groups in the state. Gore needs to keep those groups within his camp to fend off a challenge from Bill Bradley.
"Harkin's good with organized labor, teachers, seniors and
environmentalists," Hildebrand said. "And when he endorses, he doesn't just
endorse, he actively works for you."
Harkin himself ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, but
endorsed Bill Clinton shortly after dropping out of the race.
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