Teamsters President James P. Hoffa won his bid for re-election by a nearly two-to-one margin. Hoffa won 64 percent of the 310,432 votes, with opponent Tom Leedham, a local officer from Oregon, getting 35 percent.

According to published reports, an estimated 348,080 ballots were mailed in, the lowest voter turnout since the union started allowing its rank and file to elect its top officers as part of a 1989 settlement of a federal anti-racketeering lawsuit. Thousands of ballots were ruled invalid or challenged by one of the two campaigns. Others voted for neither candidate.
This will be Hoffa's first full five-year term. He became president in a special election in 1998, against Leedham and another candidate, after former union President Ron Carey was ousted in an election scandal.
Hoffa has pledged to end the government's oversight of the union. His first task, however, are negotiations with UPS scheduled to begin in January. Also up for renegotiation this year is the master freight agreement with the nation's major less-than-truckload companies, which expires March 31.
"The membership has spoken loud and clear," Hoffa said Friday in a statement when unofficial results were fairly obvious as to the winner. "They want a union that is democratic and united. They want a union that is fiscally responsible, yet forward looking. They want union that gives them voice in the workplace and on Capitol Hill. They want union that is not beholden to corporate interests, or any political party. They want an independent and free Teamsters union."
Leedham congratulated Hoffa, and noted that he was outspent ten to one by an incumbent with a famous name. "General President Hoffa will have a chance to live up to his promises to win strong contracts at UPS, freight, and all the other agreements that will be negotiated in the coming five years," Leedham said. "I congratulate him on his victory and hope he succeeds. But we continue to believe that success doesn't come from the top down and that the power of the union flows from Teamster membership."