A union favorite will back Reilly
Lynch endorsement offers a late boost
US Representative Stephen Lynch plans to endorse Thomas F. Reilly for governor today, giving the attorney general the active backing of a union favorite in a tight three-way Democratic primary where organized labor could play a crucial role.
With two weeks remaining until the Sept. 19 primary, each of the three Democrats has picked up numerous union endorsements -- Deval Patrick has the support of 20 union locals, Reilly has 16, and businessman Christopher Gabrieli has eight. Patrick has garnered the most support from the state's congressional delegation, picking up six endorsements to Reilly's three.
But the support of Lynch, a former union ironworker from South Boston, provides Reilly some momentum heading into the home stretch. The congressman is an impassioned speaker who counts 18 union members among his relatives. Political analysts expect fewer than 700,000 voters to take part in the primary, increasing the influence of unions' get-out-the-vote effort in determining the winner.
``After these last few Republican governors, we have to have someone in there who can make government work for its intended purpose," said Lynch, who plans to appear with Reilly at Florian Hall in Dorchester to rally union support today. ``He's got the experience. He knows how the system works. There will be no learning curve for him."
Reilly, looking to regain some of the support he lost to his rivals over the summer, in an interview called Lynch's endorsement ``huge . . . It's a very clear signal to organized labor and working families that one of their own is on my side and I am on theirs."
However, in an indication of the divided loyalties in the race for governor, Lynch's union local has endorsed Gabrieli, and Lynch agreed that Reilly's primary opponents would be good labor supporters. ``We have three solid, decent, good candidates for the governor of Massachusetts," he said at the annual Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day breakfast yesterday.
Union leaders at the breakfast made it clear that their main goal is to elect a Democratic governor after 16 years of Republican control. Nationally, the AFL-CIO has named Massachusetts one of 14 ``battleground states" where national labor leaders will direct organizers and money for the fall gubernatorial campaign.
``More than anything else, we need a governor who will defend unionization," said Richard Rogers , executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council, noting that Massachusetts wages are dropping along with the number of workers represented by unions.
``It's not a happy Labor Day for the labor movement," he told the audience of more than 500 union members and supporters in Boston's Park Plaza Hotel.
Although union umbrella organizations such as Rogers' group have stayed neutral in the primary, each Democrat running for governor has actively courted union support with considerable success.
Reilly, by far the most experienced politician of the three, has presented himself as the regular guy from Watertown who has been on labor's side for years. ``I will never have as much money as my opponents, but I have something money can't buy. I have a record," Reilly told the breakfast gathering yesterday. ``I have been fighting and standing by you for a long time."
Patrick, who rose from childhood poverty in Chicago to become the Clinton administration's top civil rights official and later a successful corporate attorney, has positioned himself as the candidate of ``hope," inspiring activists who see him as a friend of the ``have-nots." But Patrick also stresses the need for liberals to be less hostile to business. ``We have to learn to love both the jobs and the businesses that create the jobs," he said yesterday.
Gabrieli, a venture capitalist and former candidate for lieutenant governor who lives on Beacon Hill, may be the least typical labor candidate, but his emphasis on ideas that bring ``results" has resonated with some labor leaders. True to form, yesterday Gabrieli called for changes in the state's new health insurance law so that profitable companies would have to pay more into a state fund if they didn't provide enough insurance benefits to workers.
In endorsing Reilly, Lynch said organized labor can play a leading role in electing the next governor, but activists need to put more energy into the gubernatorial campaign.
``On a scale of one to 10, they're probably at a seven right now [in enthusiasm]. They have to turn it up a notch," said Lynch. But he said that may be the result of having three strong candidates who divide the support.
``May the best candidate win, but don't forget we're going to rally around the winner," concluded Rogers . In fact, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO begins its statewide conference the day after the primary and leaders say they hope the primary winner will join them for lunch.
Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com. 