The Democratic presidential field’s long-shot hopefuls got a chance to make a pitch Tuesday for a key endorsement from firefighters unions, touting their union ties and working-class values without competition from Hillary Rodham Clinton.
With Mrs. Clinton preoccupied and unable to attend, all her potential rivals took turns testing out their stump speeches at the International Association of Fire Fighters’ annual conference in Washington.
Each served up populist rhetoric that President Obama has helped make a cornerstone of the Democratic platform.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, beckoned the firefighters to join him battling a “war going on against working families.”
Mr. Sanders, a self-described socialist who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate and is considering running for president as a Democrat, proposed expanding union membership, instituting trade policies that protect U.S. jobs, making college more affordable and guaranteeing health care as a legal right.
Former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia talked up his Marine combat experience and vowed to use his leadership skills to fight for “true economic fairness” for American’s downtrodden middle class.
“The grand bargain that has been the foundation of our entire society is simple: if you work hard and elect leaders who will insist on a fair chance for you to succeed, you will have a good income and a comfortable way of life,” he said. “This simple concept is now at risk.”
He echoed Democratic talking points by backing government spending on infrastructure, rebuilding America’s manufacturing base and placing a renewed emphasis on education. But he also called for criminal justice reform, a cause he has long championed.
Mr. Webb told reporters after the speech that his presidential exploratory committee is still analyzing whether his populist message can attract the level of financial support necessary to compete in a presidential race.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley channeled George H.W. Bush by blasting Republicans for pursuing “voodoo economics” — a phrase Mr. Bush used in the 1980 presidential campaign against Ronald Reagan. Mr. O’Malley blamed such “voodoo” for income gaps and vowed to restore the American Dream with a pro-union policies.
“To make the dream true again, we must fight for better wages for all workers, so that Americans can live again on what they earn,” he said. “That means raising the minimum wage, expanding eligibility for overtime pay and respecting the rights of all workers to organize.”
The long-shot hopefuls made their appeals at the IAFF’s presidential forum, which included several Republicans who are eyeing a White House run in 2016: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rep. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rep. Peter King of New York, former New York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addressed the conference in a prerecorded video.
A day earlier, the conference heard from two other potential Democratic candidates, Vice President Joseph R. Biden and liberal firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
More than any other speaker, Mrs. Warren wowed the crowd with her anti-Wall Street rhetoric and populist rallying cry that has made her the left wing’s dream candidate for 2016.
“It is critical that we all speak up, that all of us work to get rid of the rigged game in Washington and to make this country work once again for working people,” Ms. Warren told the firefighters. “We got to do this. Our country is in real trouble. Our working families are in real trouble. It is only if we fight that that we once again build the kind of America where it works for working families.”
She has insisted that she is not running for president, but her supporters think she could still jump in the race and offer a liberal alternative to Mrs. Clinton.
IAFF General President Harold A. Schaitberger said Mrs. Clinton wanted to attend but was already scheduled to speak Tuesday at a United Nations conference on women’s rights, though her press conference got overtaken by her answering questions for the first time about her use exclusive use of a private email account for official communications as secretary of state.
Mr. Schaitberger said Mrs. Clinton’s absence did not disqualify her for a union endorsement and that she likely would have other opportunities to address the firefighters.
The union’s 300,000 members split closely between Republicans and Democrats, but the union in recent years has always endorsed a Democrat for president.
The IAFF can be an important ally for Democratic hopefuls. The group takes credit for helping Secretary of State John F. Kerry win the New Hampshire primary in 2004, which paved the way to his eventual capture of the Democratic nomination.
For some firefighters, the speeches began to blur together as the candidates paraded through the conference.
Dave Chiaramonte, the president of the local firefighter union in Erie, Pennsylvania, said at the close of the conference that none of the candidates stood out, except maybe Mr. O’Malley, who spoke last.
“I liked some of what Lindsey Graham had to say,” said Mr. Chiaramonte, a Democrat. “It seemed like he was sincere.”
Mr. Graham talked about rebuilding the middle class, but he stressed the need to save Social Security from going broke and the need to oppose the spread of Islamic terrorism.
After being introduced as a man of honesty and consistency, Mr. Graham also gave a blunt assessment of his chances of winning the presidency. “Honesty and consistency means I probably don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. But I’ll give it a try,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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