Unions failed in June to oust arch-enemy Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. | REUTERS Unions scramble to help Dem govs

Organized labor is on a losing streak.

Governors’ races across the country haven’t been friendly turf to unions, which lost a set of pro-labor governors in 2010 and then failed in June to oust archenemy Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, despite spending upward of $10 million on the race.


Now, labor is scrambling to hold on to the friends that are left, but the electoral map isn’t helping.

Democrats are playing defense in eight gubernatorial races this fall, compared with just three relatively safe Republican seats up for grabs. That means unions, desperate to ward off legislation that would hamstring their collective bargaining power, are being forced to spend time and money in some unlikely places.

In Indiana, unions have donated about $1.5 million to a Democrat who trailed the latest polls by double-digits. In Missouri and New Hampshire, states where right-to-work legislation has come up in recent years, unions are desperate to keep Democrats in the governors’ mansions.

“This year it seems like everywhere we look, in the key areas for the labor movement, we have real fights on our hands; so we’re working really, really hard in those races,” said Tim Waters, political director at the United Steelworkers union. “These races are all tough; they’re expensive. They take a lot of focus and ground resources, volunteers — all the things that go on behind the scenes.”

Unions have already spent more than $2 million this cycle in a handful of key races: Washington, Missouri, New Hampshire and Indiana, according to state campaign finance records and data compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Labor groups have also donated nearly $4 million to the Democratic Governors Association this election cycle.

They’re paying less attention to other big governors’ races, including those in red states Utah and North Dakota. Vermont, Delaware and West Virginia are viewed as safe races for the Democratic candidates. In the contested race in North Carolina, Republican Pat McCrory has led a series of recent polls, but the state has the lowest rate of union membership in the country.

Nowhere is labor’s struggle more emblematic than in the Hoosier State, where unions are trying to help defeat a rising Republican star fueled by conservative megadonors.

National and local unions have donated about $1.5 million to former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg, making up more than one-third of the Democrat’s total fundraising haul, according to state campaign finance filings and the National Institute on Money in State Politics. That includes big checks from groups like the Indiana Regional Council of Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The problem is that Gregg is a big underdog against his Republican challenger, Rep. Mike Pence. A March poll — the latest available — has Pence leading by 13 points.

Pence has tied himself to outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels, another Republican who, like Walker, infuriated labor groups when he signed right-to-work legislation barring unions from imposing mandatory fees on members. Pence hailed that legislation at the time, calling it “a victory for economic freedom and Hoosier workers.”

Pence has raised more than twice as much cash as Gregg — $10 million to $4 million — thanks in large part to national Republican donors including $100,000 from billionaire industrialist David Koch; $120,000 from Texas construction magnate Bob Perry and his wife Doylene; and $75,000 from John Childs, a Boston equity firm CEO who has donated millions of dollars to conservative groups this cycle. Pence ended June with $5.5 million in the bank compared with Gregg’s $2.9 million.

Indiana and Wisconsin are object lessons for unions, who saw right-to-work legislation defeated in New Hampshire and Missouri thanks only to Democratic vetoes.

“We saw what can happen when we had a governor that cared about workers and workers’ rights in New Hampshire,” said Waters of the Steelworkers. “Without the veto there, that would have been a right-to-work state.”

But New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch is retiring, and so labor groups are backing with cash and endorsements the two Democrats vying to replace him: former state Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jackie Cilley. (The primary is Sept. 11.)

Unions have given more than $40,000 to Hassan, including checks from the Granite State Teamsters and the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. She has secured the endorsements of labor groups including local chapters of the Communications Workers of America, New Hampshire Iron Workers and the Teamsters. Cilley has picked up the support of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire, SEIU Local 1984, the New Hampshire State Association of Letter Carriers and other labor groups.

Already, GOP primary candidates Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith have expressed support for right-to-work legislation, and the issue isn’t expected to disappear from the state legislature anytime soon.

Lamontagne has outraised both Democrats, raking in more than $900,000 through June 14, his campaign announced.

Unions are also hoping to keep Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon — and his veto power — around Missouri for a second term.

Nixon has already vetoed several bills opposed by unions in Missouri, and unions view him as a stalwart against right-to-work bills that continue to surface in the state legislature. Nixon had received more than $900,000 — or about 12 percent of his total campaign cash — from unions through the end of March, according to the National Institute of Money in State Politics.

Nixon held a 9-point lead over likely GOP challenger David Spence in a poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last month.

Labor leaders say they’re also planning to put resources into Montana, where Attorney General Steve Bullock is challenging GOP Rep. Rick Hill for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Montana hasn’t been at the center of the national battle over labor rights, but unions would like to see Bullock win the seat to block controversial bills from Republicans who now hold majorities in both chambers of the legislature.

Even in a state like Washington, where Democrats control both legislative chambers, unions don’t feel they can rest easy, giving more than $120,000 to former Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee’s campaign.

“We’re looking at the legislative sessions coming up; we don’t take anything for granted in terms of makeups of chambers,” said Brian Weeks, political director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“We’ve been on the defensive because of what happened in 2010, but no one should take that as a permanent position. We have to be on the offensive,” said Waters of the Steelworkers union. “It may be in some people’s minds less dangerous of a situation, but all these seats are up for grabs. It’s not just about the governor.”

Inslee is running neck-and-neck against Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna in the Evergreen State. A poll conducted by Elway in July showed Inslee with a 7-point lead, but that’s after a long series of polls showed McKenna with a slight edge.

Inslee’s received cash from the American Federation of Teachers, the Communications Workers of America and the Iron Workers Political Action League, state filings show.