Elizabeth Warren's Prospective Senate Bid Gains Labor Support

WASHINGTON -- The Massachusetts labor community appears to be coalescing around Elizabeth Warren's prospective Senate candidacy, with a regional arm of the AFL-CIO inviting the consumer advocate to give the keynote address at a Labor Day event this weekend.

Warren, who is expected to formally announce a Senate bid in the weeks ahead, will address the Greater Boston Labor Council this Monday during its annual breakfast. The speaking gig is a plum spot for a Democratic politician. Other attendees at the event who weren't granted the keynote slot include Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Lt. Governor Timothy Murray and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin.

While an invitation to speak doesn't equate with a formal endorsement, it's worth noting that none of the other Democratic Senate aspirants -- Newton Mayor Setti Warren, social entrepreneur Alan Khazei and State Representative Thomas Conroy -- will be at the affair.

"Elizabeth Warren and the Greater Boston Labor Council share an essential characteristic," said GBLC spokesman Louis Mandarini. "We advocate for working people. The work she did in TARP oversight and setting up the CFPB [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] is akin to helping people form unions and helping them in the workplace."

The GBLC, Mandarini said, will only endorse a candidate after its affiliate organizations get together to come to a consensus decision. But the expectation continues to mount that labor's political machinery will end up backing Warren -- a significant development considering the unlikelihood that the Democratic Party will involve itself in the primary contest.

The former Obama administration official has already received the unsolicited backing of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the largest association of registered nurses in the state.