AFL-CIO puts endorsement on hold

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO yesterday decided to sit out the Democratic primary for governor, but the leaders of the state's largest labor organization vowed to unite behind the Democratic nominee in the November election.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and former assistant US attorney general Deval L. Patrick have already picked up support from several statewide unions and a number of large locals, but neither approached the two-thirds threshold of support needed from the 44 labor leaders who met yesterday in Braintree. There was no formal vote to gauge specific levels of support for any of the candidates yesterday, however.

The third Democrat, venture capitalist Christopher F. O. Gabrieli , has not received any union endorsements to date but intends to pursue them. Before yesterday's vote, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Robert Haynes said any of the three Democrats would have broad labor support in November against the Republican, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, and Christy Mihos, an independent. Grace Ross of the Green-Rainbow Party will also be on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Calling the trio of Democrats ``pretty close on the issues," Haynes said, ``They disagree on little, and, on balance, they're all pretty good labor candidates."

Leaders of the organization, which has about 400,000 members, pledged to focus on November when they hope to end, after 16 years, what a statement by the umbrella organization called ``this depressing reign of unimpressive, ineffective, and downright indifferent Republican governors."

The decision not to endorse before the gubernatorial primary follows two cycles in which the organization, a bedrock constituency of the Democratic Party, anointed a candidate in multi-candidate primaries with differing results. In 2002, then-Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham won the AFL-CIO's backing but finished third in a four-candidate Democratic primary. Four years earlier, then-attorney general Scott Harshbarger had the labor group's support in beating two Democrats in September but lost to Republican Paul Cellucci in the final election.

In other primary contests, the labor leaders voted to endorse Worcester Mayor Timothy P. Murray, who is vying for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor with Deborah Goldberg and Andrea Silbert; and Secretary of State William F. Galvin, a three-term incumbent, over his primary challenger, John Bonifaz.

The organization also endorsed Democratic statewide and congressional candidates who face no primary opposition: Senator Edward M. Kennedy and all 10 incumbent US representatives; Middlesex District Attorney Martha M. Coakley, who is running to succeed Reilly as attorney general; the first-term state treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill; and the five-term auditor, A. Joseph DeNucci.