By Andrea Bernstein

March 18, 2001 | 7:00 p.m

The leaders of the lunch-bucket crowd gathered for a

fund-raiser in a basement conference room at the New York State AFL-CIO headquarters on March 12, just steps away from the State Capitol in Albany. The fare was par for the course-cheese cubes and similar delights. The chatter was about national and local politics. It could have been any Albany fund-raiser, for just about anyone. It could have been, but it wasn't. The union's guest of honor was Governor George Pataki, a Republican who is preparing for a tough reelection campaign next year against either one of two high-profile Democrats who will be counting on strong support from the union movement. Albany watchers sat up and took notice-and with reason. After all, when the AFL-CIO honors a Republican Governor at its first fund-raiser of the legislative season and raises $50,000 for his reelection campaign, that's not just news. That's a signal. Although Mr. Pataki hasn't said whether he'll run for a third term in 2002, events like the union fund-raiser suggest that he is laying the groundwork for another campaign and that he will aggressively court voters from traditionally Democratic constituencies. The Governor already enjoys a reputation as a moderate, environmentally friendly Republican. Now, with union friends in high places, he is making inroads on a voter bloc that has been revived in recent years, and that helped play a key role in electing Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton to the U.S. Senate. A senior Democratic Party official said he was concerned about Mr. Pataki's inroads on organized labor. "Pataki is doing a very good job of laying the foundation to neutralize a big part of the labor movement next year," said the senior Democrat, who asked to remain anonymous. "That could be a big problem for either Democrat. If labor sits out the race, as it did when Pataki was reelected in 1998, that could harm the Democrats' chances." Denis Hughes, state president of the AFL-CIO, insisted the fund-raiser had no bearing on the union's eventual choice for Governor. At the reception, however, Mr. Hughes called the Governor "A friend of the labor movement." Not all union leaders agree with Mr. Hughes' assessment that the labor movement must "act in a nonpartisan way" to win "progressive legislation" favorable to workers. And allies of the two Democrats vying for a shot at Mr. Pataki next year, state Comptroller H. Carl McCall and former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, shrugged off the Albany event as little more than labor kissing up to the man who signs their contracts. "I disagree with the strategy," said Larry Mancino, vice president of District One of the Communications Workers of America. "I personally don't think the present Governor has done what he should be doing for working people here in New York. I don't believe in doing a fund-raiser for people we're not going to be supporting. We're going to be supporting Carl McCall ... without a doubt." Former Governor Mario Cuomo, father of the would-be gubernatorial candidate, wouldn't be happy to hear about Mr. Mancino's unqualified endorsement of Mr. McCall, but he surely would agree with the union leader's skepticism of Mr. Pataki. And he seemed unconcerned that the state AFL-CIO would salute the incumbent. "I don't see that anybody would be troubled that interest groups are trying to make nice to the powers-that-be," he said. "They were certainly nice to me for 12 years. When you're in power, they're nice to you. That's why it's so hard to change the campaign-finance laws, because the incumbents-whether Democrat or Republican-benefit from it. It's an out-and out-attempt to purchase good will, and everybody knows it." The state AFL-CIO may have been nice to the elder Mr. Cuomo when he was Governor, but it never held a fund-raiser for an incumbent Governor before. What's more, the Albany fête for Mr. Pataki was the second labor-Pataki lovefest in less than a week. The first was perhaps even more remarkable. It took place on March 9 at the midtown headquarters of the Service Employees International Union, headed by one of the state's most powerful union leaders, Dennis Rivera. About 250 union members, most of them black and Latino, showed up for a mid-afternoon rally to thank Mr. Pataki for asking President Bush to suspend naval bombing exercises on Vieques, an island off Puerto Rico. Mr. Bush readily complied, though he has yet to halt the bombing permanently. The Vieques exercises have been a political hot-button issue for years, and Mr. Rivera attempted to persuade President Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton to halt the bombing, to no avail. "To this day, I am perplexed," Mr. Rivera told The Observer . "The Puerto Rican community has voted more than 90 percent for Bill Clinton in both elections. And at the same time he was prepared to take the heat on the Marc Rich pardon, he was not prepared to take some heat from the Navy [by banning the bombing exercises]. It's unconscionable and unforgivable. If George Bush ends up canceling all future maneuvers in Vieques, the facts are that Bill Clinton didn't do it and a Republican President did it." And Mr. Rivera is prepared to give full credit to Mr. Pataki not only for his intervention, but for helping to close the deal. An Ironic Twist Addressing the union members, Mr. Rivera made a clear reference to this ironic turn of events-a Republican Governor calling a Republican President to get something done for a heavily Democratic voting bloc. "Probably some of us would not have gotten our phone calls returned from the new President," Mr. Rivera joked. Probably not, since Mr. Rivera put his members-all 320,000 of them-to work to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Senate. Mr. Rivera has a complex relationship with Mr. Pataki; while he has tortured the Governor on occasion on health-care issues, he also has been quick to praise him. "I don't consider myself a personal friend," Mr. Rivera mused, when asked if he was close to the Governor. "I consider him to be a person who is very easy to talk to. His demeanor isn't one that carries any airs. We might have some disagreements in terms of policy, but on the other hand I find him to be an easy person to deal with." Mr. Pataki has also shrugged off their past differences. "It's the nature of advocacy," he told The Observer . "I understand that. I do what I believe is in the best interests of the people. That's my job." Mr. Rivera's presence at a pro-Pataki event, therefore, was not completely startling. Then again, neither was the presence of another Democratic speaker-except for the fact that this speaker's brother-in-law wishes to evict Mr. Pataki from the state's Executive Mansion. Environmentalist attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has sued the U.S. Navy for the environmental degradation brought about by the decades of bombing on Vieques, helped warm up the crowd for Mr. Pataki. Mr. Kennedy's sister, Kerry, is married to Andrew Cuomo, suggesting the possibility of a Shakespearean family drama next year as Mr. Cuomo assails Mr. Pataki-as he already has done-as a mediocre Governor. Mr. Kennedy has never hesitated to praise Mr. Pataki, particularly on environmental issues. Mr. Rivera and Mr. Kennedy got the crowd going, but it was Mr. Pataki himself-never thought of as a passionate orator-who stole the show. "This isn't an abandoned island; this isn't a desert island!" Mr. Pataki said of Vieques. "There are 10,000 people on Vieques! There are children who are born and raised on Vieques! And just imagine not just the health consequences on those children, but the emotional stress that a child faces when they hear these bombs and have the ground rattle and see the ash in the sky! And they never know when it's going to happen!" Eventually, he delivered the kicker: "No mas bombas en Vieques! No more bombs in Vieques!" This was once the rallying cry of college radicals who were protesting Vieques in the early 1970's. Now a Republican Governor who faces two prominent Democrats was yelling it to hundreds of union members, who were chanting back "No mas! No mas!" "Smart politics," said Ken Sunshine, Mr. Rivera's public-relations consultant. Indeed. Like the AFL-CIO's Mr. Hughes, Mr. Rivera insists that the rally had nothing to do with next year's gubernatorial contest. "I think that in 2002 we'll be making decisions in the best interests of the members of our union, and we'll take that question at that time," he said. And supporters of Mr. McCall can't believe that the union's predominantly minority membership will pass up the opportunity to elect the state's first black Governor. Maybe. "The Governor has been romancing labor, and labor had been romancing back," said consultant Norman Adler, who works for both Democrats and Republicans. "You've got a Republican Governor who is pretty open and accessible to the labor movement. The labor movement knows there are two more budgets and two more legislative sessions before the next election, and they've got to do business with him. And people are not entirely sure he won't get reelected." "I think when George Pataki has acted right, we have praised him," Mr. Rivera said. "For example, when he attempted to cut Medicaid spending, we were fierce opposition. [But] we prefer to be allies and friends as opposed to being at each other's throats." Something to remember come 2002.