It wasn’t that Gephardt was tied to labor, but that labor didn’t deliver for Gephardt. But Gephardt had only the manufacturing type unions. The service unions went for Dean. Look how well that worked. Together their candidates got only 29% of the vote. Labor failed to deliver the vote, even in the primaries!

This is a big defeat for labor. They can still deliver the $ to the Democrats, but apparently not the volunteers. If Bush pushes to enforce Beck, that could devastate the unnion’s financial power. While not a big story at the moment, because the focus is on the candidates, this is one more factor that does not augur well for the long run interests of the Democrat party. They are going to have a lot of rebuilding to do.

Posted by: Richard Heddleson at January 20, 2004 08:56 PM

There are two labor movements in America: the private sector/industry movement, which Gephardt has courted thoughout his career, and the government/public sector movement. One cares about trade/protectionism, the other lives off taxes. One of these movements is getting smaller, while the other keeps growing. The labor movement will still matter, not the one that tied itself to Gephardt.

Posted by: moghedien at January 20, 2004 10:55 PM

Here’s the CNN stats page breaking down the votes per candidate by various categories. Labor’s one, income’s another, education a third, and so on.

Gephardt got 22% of labor, Dean and Edwards combined got 41%.

Posted by: Linkmeister at January 21, 2004 02:06 AM