HELENA - The Montana AFL-CIO has endorsed a solid slate of Democrats for statewide office, but left off one Democratic legislator for helping defeat another Democratic lawmaker and another for his involvement in a rival labor group.

Delegates to the AFL-CIO's annual convention last weekend in Butte went on record in favor of Tracy Velazquez for the U.S. House, Brian Schweitzer and John Bohlinger for governor and lieutenant governor and Bill Kennedy for secretary of state. They recommended re-electing these Democratic incumbents: Attorney General Mike McGrath, Auditor John Morrison and Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch.

AFL-CIO delegates endorsed these nonpartisan candidates for the Montana Supreme Court: Justice John Warner, Justice Jim Nelson and candidate Ed McLean

The AFL-CIO endorsed candidates in 89 of the 125 legislative seats, mostly Democrats.

Omitted from the endorsement list and given a ''no recommendation'' was Sen. Ken Toole, D-Helena, who helped defeat Sen. Bea McCarthy, D-Anaconda, who was running for a state House seat in the June 8 primary. Toole sent a letter to Anaconda voters criticizing McCarthy for voting for electric utility deregulation in 1997 and urging them to elect her opponent, Dan Villa.

Jerry Driscoll, a former Democratic lawmaker from Billings who is executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO, said Toole was passed by for endorsement to send him - and ''probably the whole Democratic Party'' - a message.

''You think it's OK to sneak around and pick out your favorite little Democrats,'' Driscoll said. ''It's OK for you, but it isn't OK for us. And I'm sick of it.''

Driscoll noted that the AFL-CIO also didn't endorse Toole's opponent, Republican Kevin DeTienne.

The AFL-CIO had drawn criticism from some Democrats for its own endorsement choices. It recommended that people voting in the Democratic primary vote for Schweitzer and those casting ballots in the Republican primary back Bob Brown. Both men won their primary races.

Before the primary, the AFL-CIO also endorsed Sen. Debbie Shea, D-Butte, over former Rep. Bob Raney, D-Livingston, for the District 3 seat on the Public Service Commission. Raney won in a tight race.

Driscoll called it ''unbelievable'' that Toole worked to defeat McCarthy as part of the group, Taking Montana Back, when he also was one of the co-chairmen of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, whose goal it is to elect Democratic lawmakers. Toole has defended his right to participate in primary races.

In response to the AFL-CIO not endorsing him, Toole said, ''I'm sorry they feel the way they do. I have a good labor record. I've always supported workers and their right to organize in the state of Montana, and I'll continue to do so.''

Also left off the endorsement list was Sen. Dan Harrington, D-Butte, a longtime lawmaker who regularly tries to get the Legislature to raise the state's minimum wage.

Harrington was passed over because he made the choice to serve as vice president of the Montana Progressive Labor Caucus that ''continually attacks the AFL-CIO,'' said Darrell Holzer, political director of the Montana AFL-CIO.

The Progressive Labor Caucus was formed in June 2001 by some union members upset with the direction of the state AFL-CIO after Driscoll's election the previous month. The labor rump group has been highly critical of some of the stands taken by the AFL-CIO.

At the same time, the AFL-CIO declined to endorse Democrat Mary Caferro of Helena, who is running for the state House, because of her involvement in the Progressive Labor Caucus.

The AFL-CIO referred to its executive board a decision on whether to back Villa, the Anaconda Democrat who defeated McCarthy.

In other races, the AFL-CIO backed Geoff Badenoch, a Democrat running for the state Public Service Commission from District 4, which takes in western and northwestern Montana.

The labor delegates made no recommendations in the Districts 2 and 3 PSC races.

''Except maybe for linemen, there's not a hell of a lot of interaction between most unions and the PSC,'' Driscoll said. ''Yeah, it's important for individual members and their bills, they don't have a hell of a lot to do with us.''

The labor group also endorsed Constitutional Initiative 41, which recognizes the right of Montanans to hunt and fish, and Constitutional Amendment 42, which would extend legislative term limits from 8 years in every 16 years in one house to 12 years in any 24-year period.

The other ballot measures - including a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriages and a proposed law to repeal the state's ban on the use of the cyanide leaching technique to mine gold and silver - ''had nothing to do with us as us as collective bargaining or organizing,'' Driscoll said.

As for Initiative 147, the gold mining measure, Driscoll said: ''As soon as one of the unions walks in here with a union contract, I'll change my mind. Until that point, why should we get involved?''

30