ANCHESTER, N.H. - With the nation's first presidential primary just six months away, candidates and their supporters trooped to New Hampshire yesterday in search of solidarity with the working men and women there.
''Al Gore served in Congress for 16 years ... and in all those years he stood with labor because that was the right thing to do,'' Tipper Gore told AFL-CIO members who hosted yesterday's Labor Day breakfast in Manchester. Some 200 union members and political activists joined Gore and New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen to praise the gains won by organized labor.
''We have to elect our friends and defeat our enemies,'' said James Casey, a former union president appointed by Shaheen to serve as the state's labor commissioner. Organized labor is making comeback plans to take a more active role than in past presidential primaries, union officials said.
Gore asked for labor's help in making her husband the next president and she made them a promise.
''He will veto every piece of antilabor legislation that comes to his desk,'' Gore said.
Though Shaheen has not formally endorsed Gore, she is a friend of the family and a past Gore ally. Supporters of former Senator Bill Bradley, Gore's rival for the Democratic nomination, were scattered throughout the banquet hall and some blamed Shaheen's closeness to both Gore and organized labor for their candidate's absence.
''Bradley was not even invited,'' said Beth Campbell, a state employee and Bradley supporter. ''Having been a union steward himself when he was playing basketball, Bradley basically has a firmer grasp of union issues.''
Republicans Gary Bauer, Dan Quayle, Elizabeth Dole, and Steve Forbes joined Shaheen and Gore for the second celebration of the holiday, the small town of Milford's annual Labor Day parade. Unlike Gore, Republican candidates relied largely on their party's promise of tax cuts to win the support of workers.
''On this Labor Day, we must recognize that millions of mothers and fathers are working to pay the costs imposed by government on families,'' former Vice President Dan Quayle said in a prepared statement.
George W. Bush, the candidate leading in polls of New Hampshire voters, passed up the Labor Day parade of political rivals. He arrived in the state late yesterday and campaigns today in Milford.
