Teamsters Oppose McAuliffe in DNC Fight

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 30 -- Breaking with their union brethren, the Teamsters have decided to throw their support behind former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson in his bid to defeat uber-fund raiser Terry McAuliffe in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee.

In a letter to the DNC’s roughly 450 delegates who will elect the party’s new leader Saturday, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa takes a swipe at McAuliffe’s credentials, saying it is “essential to have a party chairman who reflects the party’s stated values, not its fund-raising prowess; a leader who will bring credibility to the pressing issue of campaign finance reform; someone who has passed the crucible of holding elected office.”

The AFL-CIO, the labor federation with which the Teamsters are affiliated, declined to issue a reaction to the letter. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney is a leading backer of McAuliffe's candidacy.

McAuliffe, a businessman and prodigious fund-raiser who is close to the Clintons, has never run for office. McAuliffe is credited with filling Democratic coffers to record levels. But that very success helped lead to criticism that the party went too far to raise money, particularly in 1996. For example, McAuliffe has been linked to rewarding big Democratic donors with stays in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Some hard feelings toward McAuliffe from the 1.5 million-member Teamsters union and some leaders in the African-American community linger from the failure of President Clinton and his allies to consult them before all but coronating McAuliffe as party chairman last December.

Another reason for Hoffa’s concern: McAuliffe was alleged to have had a role in a campaign cash swap between former Teamsters President Ron Carey and the DNC during the union’s 1996 presidential contest. No charges were ever brought against McAuliffe or other Democratic officials in the Teamsters case.

Carey, whose defeat of Hoffa was later overturned, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury on charges of perjury and making false statements during the investigation into his campaign’s fund-raising irregularities.