Huffington Post:Union Leaders' Clash Over Dem Endorsements A Sign Of Racial Polarization (cat fight)

[Omaha Steve]

I am an AFSCME member that is ashamed of what AFSCME has done in the last 6 months while spending over 6 million $ on Clinton. I salute the locals in Oregon and Illinois that said "NO" and have backed Obama.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/14/union-leaders-clash-over_n_101826.html

Thomas B. Edsall
The Huffington Post

May 14, 2008 10:12 PM

Some black leaders within the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) are complaining that under Gerald McEntee, Hillary Clinton's strongest and most outspoken backer in the labor movement, union money is being spent to build white turnout for the New York Senator in what has become a racially polarized competition for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a number of sources.

The conflict is emblematic of the intensifying hostility within Democratic ranks as the nomination fight slowly moves towards closure. The fact that the two leading candidates are a black and a woman has produced internal and external disputes involving civil rights, women's rights and a variety of other groups and leaders in the liberal wing of the party.

William Lucy, International Secretary-Treasurer of the 1.4 million member AFSCME, raised the issue of the union's spending on behalf of Clinton at a recent board meeting.

Lucy, according to sources, pointed out that Clinton is winning whites, while Obama is carrying blacks by 9-to-1 margins, forcing her supporters, including AFSCME, to concentrate on building white turnout.

In addition to his number two post at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Lucy is founder and president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.

Tensions between McEntee and Lucy have been simmering outside of public view for years, and the Clinton-Obama contest has forced these tensions closer to the surface. While AFSCME under McEntee's direction endorsed Clinton, Lucy has personally given Obama $2,300.

FULL story at link.

About Thomas B. Edsall

Thomas B. Edsall is the political editor of the Huffington Post. He is also Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. From 1981 to 2006, he was a political reporter at the Washington Post. He is the author of Chain Reaction and Building Red America. Tom can be reached at [e-mail].