The caller  was direct:  I have it from a reliable source that the UAW is going to endorse the Mayor of Lansing.

    Wow.  The "Virg" on the verge of a mando endorsement.

    Actually the caller was a day late.  On Tuesday another source sent along the same story.

    That prompted a call to the man.  When his recorded voice came on the line, this cryptic message was left:  "I'd like to run the story that the UAW is going to endorse you.  Give me a buzz."

     A short time later while grinding away the miles on the tread mill the return call came in.  "What have you heard? I have not heard anything," the excited Virg Bernero reported.

    The buzz is all over town and of course it is not official until it is official but even the thought of landing such a plumb blessing is good news for Bernero who desperately needs this to jump start his fund raising efforts.

     The union would do him a huge favor by trotting it out now and how ironic.  At the time that Lt. Gov. John Cherry truly needed the UAW's help late last year, the union stiffed him and as Paul Harvey once said, "You know the rest of that story."

     Any Democrat would give almost anything to have the financial and grass roots support that comes with a UAW tap on the head.

    But just having that, while important, does not guarantee a win.

    Ask Larry Owen who got lots of union support when he ran for the democratic nomination for governor years ago and ended up losing the nomination to a guy named Fieger as in Geoffrey.  The UAW proceeded to stiff Fieger and you know the rest of that story, too i.e. John Engler wins a third term.

    There are some who will see this pending endorsement as an effort to wedge another labor Democrat out of the race namely Dan Kildee out of Genesee County.  Kildee and others buy into the theory that he and Bernero would divide up the mainstream democratic vote and the Blue Dog and more conservative labor folks would hi-tail it to Andy Dillon thus handing him the nomination.

    Kildee is not about to be scared off  by one endorsement but he did concede the other day if Bernero gets it, "It does change things."

    Oh yeah.  It sure do. (sic)

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