Unions in the 2000 Election: A Strategic-Choice Perspective

In the 2000 elections, organized labor mounted a "massive" political effort. The AFL-CIO spearheaded a program that emphasized both grassroots and "checkbook" politics. Labor 2000, however, represented much more than an attempt to influence elections. Political action, dedicated to a "Working Families Agenda" became a strategy of choice to elect candidates, influence lawmakers, mobilize union members, and recruit workers into the labor movement. In this paper, I examine Labor 2000 from a strategic-choice perspective. Specifically, I look at the scope and variety of labor's political effort; how labor allocated its political resources; the degree of competition it faced; and the election outcomes. In addition, I examine the effort in terms of its potential for transforming unions. Data from a variety of sources, some of which have not been previously used, are examined to put Labor 2000 into perspective as a strategy. The results indicate that labor did have some success in mobilizing union members politically. However, labor's impact proved insufficient to achieve immediate national election goals. Questions remain about the wisdom of political action as a strategy of choice, especially in terms of its viability as an instrument for institutional revival.