Gregoire fails to win state labor council's OK

By J. Patrick Coolican
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Also of note, the labor council endorsed, by voice vote, community activist Alice Woldt over state Rep. Helen Sommers, Democratic chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives.

In the governor's race, the 400 delegates voted to oppose former state Sen. Dino Rossi, the major Republican candidate.

Gregoire's bid for an endorsement received about 54 percent of the vote, short of the two-thirds needed, while the Sims faction's bid for a dual endorsement also failed.

The unions supporting a sole endorsement for Gregoire included those representing state employees, machinists, electricians, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and hotel workers. The Teamsters, engineers, plumbers, postal workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers opposed a sole endorsement for Gregoire, said Karen Keiser, the labor council's director of communications.

In addition to endorsements from the Washington Education Association, SEIU, state employees and machinists, Gregoire has shown a fund-raising advantage over Sims, according to reports filed last month with the state.

The Sims campaign was happy with the draw, especially given that the vote was a reversal of a committee recommendation for Gregoire Friday night.

"What you're seeing is a turn in momentum," said Tim Hatley, Sims' campaign manager.

Gregoire campaign manager, Tim Zenk, characterized the outcome as "a loss for Ron Sims" and said "we have by and large received all the endorsements there are to get." Zenk said the campaign was not expecting the council's endorsement "given that there are two good labor candidates in the primary." Duwane Huffaker, who fought for a Gregoire endorsement and is president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, said the non-endorsement was "not the end of the world."

"We're a little disappointed because we hoped everybody could get behind one candidate," he said.

The council's endorsement of Woldt is significant, said David Rolf, president of SEIU Local 775.
 
"The union movement maybe once a decade takes on an incumbent Democrat," said Rolf.

Woldt recently stepped down after 17 years on the executive staff of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.

The labor council, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, represents about 300,000 workers across a range of industries.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com