Senate Race Puts Labor In Dilemma Minnick Gets Reluctant Backing Over The More Hostile Craig

Organized labor could find itself in a quandary with Idaho’s U.S. Senate race matching Republican incumbent Larry Craig with Democratic newcomer Walt Minnick.

Do state labor leaders support Minnick, a former business executive who backed Idaho’s anti-union right-to-work law? Or do they back Craig, who they contend has a long record of votes against unions?

AFL-CIO President Randy Ambuehl says that based on his record, the state association hardly can support Craig. As for Minnick, Ambuehl believes the challenger is coming around to the “right” position for labor.

But labor, traditionally offering bedrock support for Democrats, probably won’t be unanimous for Minnick.

Craig recently received a substantial contribution from one union, and has been approached by others with the promise of support. Craig’s organizers have been working especially hard in the Lewiston area to get union backing.

They hope to play on the fact Minnick is on the board of directors of The Wilderness Society and belongs to the Idaho Conservation League to convince sawmill workers and other unionists that only Craig will be in a position to end the deadlocks preventing logging on federal land.

Ambuehl says a postal union promised to support Craig for voting the right way on amendments to the law preventing political activity by most federal employees.

Other than that, Ambuehl says, Craig hasn’t “voted the right way for the right reasons” very often in his 10 years in the House and into his sixth year in the Senate.

“Larry Craig, based on his historical voting record … his co-sponsorship of many, many anti-labor bills … would make it difficult to get endorsement from the federation,” Ambuehl said.

But the state AFL-CIO, a loose association of local unions, takes stands on state and national issues.

The locals themselves can endorse candidates on their own, though Ambuehl said few do.

And he says support for the mid-1980s right-to-work law isn’t necessarily fatal for Minnick among union members.

“We have a lot of people who were right-to-work supporters, so it doesn’t give me heartburn,” Ambuehl said. “Most people now view it as a bad decision.”

Based on Craig’s “long track record, we will be more likely to endorse Minnick than Craig,” he says, although there’s a potential that organized labor won’t endorse either candidate.

Minnick is working hard to lure North Idaho’s timber workers back into the fold. In a speech this past week, he urged compromises between the industry and environmental organizations to spur more harvest of timber from federal lands.

He urged the industry to quit trying to gut the Endangered Species Act and settle for reasonable reform.

In turn, Craig campaign manager Mike Reynoldson claims it is the incumbent Republican who is trying to revive the timber industry by working to get rid of the bureaucracy that puts up obstacles to timber sales.

Already a heavy underdog because Craig is a well-financed incumbent, Minnick would be even worse off if he doesn’t get the money and volunteers that unions usually provide major Democratic candidates.

And if the Idaho organization has any doubts about endorsing Minnick, that could dry up the even more important contributions from national unions.