Copyright (c) 1998, Duluth News-Tribune
Sunday, August 16, 1998
PAGE: 01A
By Daniel Bernard/News-Tribune staff writer
The "L" in the DFL stands for labor, the most active and organized faction in Minnesota's Democratic Party. But the candidates competing to be the party's nominee for governor may be beginning to feel the "L" stands for "love-hate."
Courting and claiming the loyalty of labor unions can be bruising, as some of the gubernatorial candidates are finding.
Duluth-area union leaders are defending their favorite, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, by accusing Attorney General Hubert "Skip" Humphrey III of not opposing strongly enough the role of a for-profit company in Duluth's public charter school.
On the Iron Range, native son Doug Johnson is in an escalating war of words with the leaders of unions that have endorsed Freeman. Johnson, a state senator from Tower, is questioning Freeman's labor credentials and charging the endorsements were rigged by union leaders.
While former state auditor Mark Dayton espouses policies that unions love -- he backs an $8 hourly minimum wage and says employers should provide health coverage for all wrokers -- he has remained out of the fray. The department store heir has bought TV ad time instead of vying for endorsements.
Former state Sen. Ted Mondale, meanwhile, is the Democrat unions love to hate. His 1995 vote to reduce certain compensation benefits for injured workers earned him a spot on Big Labor's enemies list. But it was the single most defining event marking him as a fiscally conservative ''New Democrat,'' a label he invites.
The arguments within the labor community are a visible preview of the difficult decision voters at large will make in the Sept. 15 primary, when they pick from among five Democrats a single nominee to face the presumed Republican standard-bearer, St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, in November.
Because unions draw together individuals around a compelling issue -- paychecks -- they have long held a lead role in progressive politics. Because they have their own, firmly structured network, they have greater influence within the DFL Party than do other factions.
None of the five candidates gets poor ratings from Minnesota AFL-CIO. Even Mondale earned a 78 percent favorable rating for votes cast during his six years as a state senator from the Minneapolis suburb St. Louis Park.
But Freeman, the son of former Gov. Orville Freeman, secured the endorsements of a long list of unions representing government workers, teachers, building trades people, industrial unions.
That was through acts of loyalty including, as Hennepin County attorney, aggressively enforcing the prevailing-wage law that requires union-level wages on publicly funded projects. And it was through hours of visits. After losing the DFL race for governor in 1994, Freeman maintained a campaign-level presence at union events around the state.
''Mike Freeman never did stop really running for governor,'' said AFL-CIO President Bernard Brommer. ''He worked very, very hard.''
Still, Humphrey, the four-term attorney general, boasts higher name recognition and a high labor voting record from his 10 years as a legislator.
When Duluth labor leaders explain why they backed Freeman over Humphrey, some point to his reaction to the Edison Project. Duluth school officials in late 1996 invited the private, for-profit company to operate a local charter school, a type of school that enjoys autonomy from normal rules and regulations. The plan was immediately opposed by labor unions, who feared a private operator would weaken them and siphon public funds.
The state law that authorized charter schools doesn't allow a for-profit firm to operate a charter school directly. So the Duluth School Board formed a nonprofit entity as a go-between, running the school while contracting its operation to the Edison Project.
In February 1997, the State Board of Education approved the arrangement. The board's minutes indicate that one of Humphrey's assistant attorneys general, Charles Mottl, said that the arrangement was ''legally permissible.''
The next day, Humphrey was in Duluth for meetings. In attendance at one of them was Erik Peterson, an organizer with AFSCME Council 96 in Duluth and one of Edison's most vocal critics. Peterson asked Humphrey his opinion of using a nonprofit to contract with a for-profit. As Peterson tells it, Humphrey replied that if it didn't violate the letter of the law, it certainly violated the spirit. Peterson said Humphrey ought to go public with that opinion, and, according to Peterson, Humphrey said he would.
Humphrey did become involved that spring in an attempt to tighten the charter school law in the Legislature in order to clearly bar for-profits. And in March 1997, he sent a letter to the Minnesota Journal, a small-circulation policy publication, saying he personally opposed the Duluth-Edison arrangement.
But Peterson said Humphrey didn't go far enough. Peterson and Alan Netland, president of the Duluth Central Labor Body, said Humphrey's response was the last straw that led them to commit to Freeman in summer 1997.
''That, to me, was a test of character,'' Netland said.
''The issue that has concerned a number of folks about Skip (Humphrey) is his ability to follow through, and to wade into a fight before he knows what the end result is going to be,'' Peterson said. ''I like the guy. I'm not really bashing Skip Humphrey. But this is about leadership and using the power of the attorney general's office.''
In an interview this month, Humphrey did not contradict Peterson's version of events. But he suggested Peterson and other Edison critics wanted him to act rashly.
''The last thing this state needs is a wild-eyed law enforcer that takes the law into his own hands. Do you want a rogue attorney general?'' Humphrey asked. ''Certainly there are sometimes things that the governor does that I don't like. I can't tell you the number of times that individuals want me to do things that they see and are emotionally committed to.''
Humphrey defended his record of criticizing for-profit involvement in charter schools.
''I have been more visible, I have spoken more forthrightly on this issue, than any candidate,'' Humphrey said. ''I am for charter schools. I want it in the public sector.''
Although Freeman has horded the official endorsements of labor bodies, Humphrey said union members will recognize he has a better chance of winning the general election.
On the Range, Freeman's struggle is with Tower state Sen. Doug Johnson. It's getting increasingly tense.
Johnson identifies himself closely with the taconite mining industry and its workers, represented by the United Steelworkers of America. He notes his leading role in repeatedly securing state bail-out aid for mining companies. But Johnson was not officially in the race when Steelworkers locals, endorsing early in hopes of increasing their influence on the race, threw their support behind Freeman in February.
Johnson continued to fight for the union label, surrounding himself at his official campaign launch with unionized Duluth US West phone workers, and noting his lead role in persuading Northwest Airlines to bring jobs to Chisholm.
Nowhere was the tug-of-war as evident as in the meetings of the Iron Range Labor Assembly, an AFL-CIO central labor body made up of representatives from 55 union locals with 9,500 members.
In June, Johnson backers packed a meeting of the labor assembly and voted through a resolution of support for his candidacy. Days later, Freeman secured the endorsement of the state AFL-CIO, parent organization to the Range assembly. The next time the assembly met, Freeman supporters packed the house and called a new vote, this time endorsing Freeman.
AFL-CIO endorsements brings with them the support of the AFL-CIO's phone banks and voter turnout efforts.
Johnson has characterized Freeman's endorsements as the will of union leaders, not their members. Johnson took that tact a step further in recent weeks, saying the union's district director, David Foster, steered the endorsement to Freeman because Foster's wife, Sarah Stoesz, is a Freeman backer who chaired Freeman's 1994 campaign.
''As for the local labor leaders, I'm sure they had good intentions. But a number of them, in fact, are able to work in offices rather than in a hot taconite plant because of positions that Dave Foster has appointed them to,'' Johnson said.
Johnson ally and state Rep. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, added that Foster, based in Minneapolis, must be biased toward candidates from the Twin Cities.
Foster said Johnson is insulting the heads of the locals to suggest they could be so easily manipulated. Forty-five Steelworkers leaders voted on the endorsement after hearing presentations from Johnson and from Freeman's running mate, Ruth Johnson. Freeman said Doug Johnson was engaging in ''name-calling.''
Johnson also notes that, in the state AFL-CIO's ratings, his lifetime voting record, 92 percent, is better than Freeman's, 85 percent.
''I was a teacher, and when you were in the 80s you got a B, and when you were in the 90s you got an A,'' Johnson said. ''I just don't understand why these labor leaders would be supporting this guy with his B instead of me with my A.''
Freeman said he did not vote on some of the bills included in the AFL-CIO rating because he was called off the Senate floor to participate in conference committees.
''Dougie can cherry-pick out one thing,'' Freeman said. ''But the fact of the matter is that the rank and file want to beat Norm Coleman. And the reason they endorsed Mike Freeman is they know I can beat Norm Coleman.''
To appearances, the battle within the labor movement looks increasingly embittered. But to Tom Pender of Britt, it's cause for excitement, not concern.
''It's not even a family feud. It's just a friendly rivalry,'' said Pender, business manager for Virginia-based Laborers Local 1097.
Pender had been an active Freeman supporter and contributor since 1993. However, when Johnson entered the race in April, Pender jumped at the chance to back a hometown candidate. He approached Freeman at a DFL gathering in Virginia to break the news.
'' 'I got some good news and some bad news for you, Mike,' '' Pender says he told Freeman. '' 'I'm supporting Doug now. But if you win the primary, I want to get back on your campaign committee.' He said he'd welcome me back on Sept. 16.''
Humphrey agreed that the tension within labor will leave no lingering hard feelings once a single DFL nominee emerges.
''I have very strong support in the rank and file of everyone of these organizations. And the leaders know it,'' Humphrey said. ''And on Sept. 16, we're going to be friends.''