John Edwards Not Planning to Quietly Fade Away

Las Vegas, NV - As he pinballs and caroms through Nevada union halls, vet centers and community meeting rooms packed with cheering, sometimes fervent crowds vowing to stand for him in this coming Saturday's caucuses, Democratic candidate John Edwards is showing absolutely no inclination toward quietly fading from the 2008 presidential race.

Though written off by much of the media and the punditocracy as the third-running and under-financed national contender behind rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the former North Carolina senator seems nevertheless buoyed by a cushion of support from organized labor, as well as from some statewide polls that put him within a few points of striking distance behind his two higher-profile opponents.

As a pulsating crowd of hundreds of union-jacketed supporters jam-packed into the local Carpenters Union hall Thursday night repeatedly stood on their feet and chanted "Go, John, Go!", a beaming Edwards, wearing jeans under his blue blazer, proclaimed himself a serious contender in the coming Democratic primaries. "The other night in the debate," he said referring to Tuesday's televised Vegas stand-off among the candidates, "a lot of caucus voters realized that contrary to what the media's been telling them for the last year there's not two, but rather three candidates in this race."

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Edwards appeared on the stage as a conquering hero and, brimming with confidence and determination, he immediately brought the crowd to its feet when he vowed with a rising voice and an extended right arm: "When I'm president, and when it becomes necessary... to go on strike, to be out walking that picket line - when I'm president--nobody, but nobody is gonna cross that picket line!"

While Edward's Nevada base is rock-solid organized labor, not even close to a majority of Nevada unions have lined up with him. When his campaign began to lag earlier this year, the long expected endorsements of the powerful Culinary workers and the Service Employees (SEIU) never materialized. They recently went with Obama. Meanwhile, the teachers union and the public employees in AFSCME lined up with Clinton.

But union members don't always vote with their leadership and that's one factor Edwards is counting on. Apart from the formal endorsement of the 12,000 members Carpenters Union, Edwards is hoping to siphon off rank-and-file members of other unions attracted by his increasingly fiery denunciations of what he calls the "corporate stranglehold on America." Indeed, among the audience Wednesday night were numerous supporters wearing the colors of the SEIU. "Everyone knows our union wanted Edwards from the beginning but settled for Obama when it looked like he had a better chance," said one long-time SEIU member at the Edwards rally. "A lot of us are going to caucus for John."

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If there was tremendous promise in Carol Moseley Braun's career in 1992, it had very much dissipated by 1998. There was a sense that she had squandered a tremendous opportunity. For starters, she was accused of (though never formally charged with) campaign finance irregularities, her then-fiance (and campaign manager) was accused of sexual harassment by female campaign workers, and her "private" trip to Nigeria in 1996, where she visited with and defended dictator Sani Abacha, was widely panned, even by many Democrats. Considerably outspent, she lost her bid for re-election in 1998, the only Democratic incumbent to be ousted that year, and the first Illinois Democrat to lose a Senate race in 20 years. (She was subsequently appointed by President Clinton as ambassador to New Zealand.)

in that context, it seems a bit surprising to find Moseley Braun throwing her hat into the presidential ring. Her late entry into the race may help explain her paltry fund-raising totals for the first quarter of 2003 ($72,000), but in a process where money brings media attention and supporters, she is well behind the other eight White House wannabes.
http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/democrats2004/braun.html