Union support key to Gephardt's political future By Matt Stearns/Knight Ridder
Standing in Gephardt's way: some of the AFL-CIO's largest affiliates, including the Service Employees' International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. They haven't joined his bandwagon, not least because they're not sure he can win.
'There's been a more independent strain of thinking and acting going on among union leaders than there has been in recent presidential elections,' said Robin Gerber, a former political director for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. 'They will never believe he can win if he can't raise the money, and right now he's not raising the money.'