Union for Webb in primary race

The official campaign site for Jim Webb is announcing that the Laborers’ International Union of North America, a half-million-member-strong breakaway from the AFL-CIO, has endorsed Webb in his bid to win the Democrat’s senatorial primary in Virginia.

Webb and Harris Miller are vying for the opportunity to carry the flag for Team Donkey against Republican incumbent Sen. George Allen in the November general election.

OK, this event may not matter. I can’t say I know a lot about how much clout such an organization might have in 2006 with the sort of Virginian who will be taking the time to vote on June 13th, rather than watch a ballgame on cable TV, or shop at the mall, or do what they do to earn a living.

Or, it may be quite significant.

An endorsement from a big labor union is different from an endorsement from a politician. I’m not saying union bosses have all the influence they did 40 or 50 years ago. What I am saying is that endorsements from most other pols hardly mean anything in today’s game.

Since America went wild for the primary system in the ‘70s, sold to us as being more "inclusive," fundraising has trumped the once time honored endorsement system to a great extent. Of course an endorsement from a well known person helps. But in the days of conventions rather than primaries, endorsements from big political players were huge. They sent signals down the line for each precinct boss and block captain. Now people pull the curtain in private and do as they please, if they vote at all.

Anyway, watered down clout or not, an endorsement from LIUNA, sets two things in motion that could suddenly fill Webb’s sails with a gust of momentum.

One: It shines a light on a personality that should play well to blue collar voters. No doubt, Webb’s potential as a populist with sizzle requires this element. Ever since the Vietnam War the Democrats have been feeling the loss of the rank-and-file support of working men and women, who were Democrats until they started seeing Dems as wusses.

Webb, a legit warrior from the Vietnam War, may be just the man to bring them back to the party of FDR and JFK. No one is likely to ever see Webb as a wuss.

Two: It underlines a problem that Miller has with labor, a cog in the party's machinery. He has been sold, so far by his PR squad, as the man who has the lion’s share of the traditional Democratic players on his bandwagon. Yet, as a businessman/lobbyist who is seen by some as an advocate of the exporting of jobs, he's vulnerable in this area. Clearly, Miller's somewhat contrived image as the quintessential Democrat is not helped by this labor endorsement.

If the LIUNA endorsement is followed by them putting their best people to work in Webb’s campaign, then other union endorsements, maybe some cash, Miller will have a hard time explaining all that away to people who wonder how a Democrat can defeat George Allen without the enthusiastic support of labor.

Is more labor support on the way? The next few days will tell.

However, as I’ve chided some on the Webb team in the last week over what I have seen as their exaggeration of the importance of their man’s list of endorsements by individuals, and perhaps a few other matters, now I must congratulate them for what may well be a real coup.