None of the Democratic presidential primary contenders will get the endorsement they've been fervently seeking from the Service Employees International Union, an especially painful blow to John Edwards.
The union said Monday it won't choose a national candidate for the primary elections, underscoring divisions that had been apparent among SEIU supporters of Edwards and the Democrats he trails in national polls: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
"Any one of these candidates would help create a new American dream for workers and their families," SEIU Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger said.
Instead of making a national endorsement, the union will let its locals make decisions state by state. And to ensure that there are no conflicts, once an SEIU local has chosen a candidate, the union's activists from that state will be barred from campaigning in states that have chosen someone else.
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http://news.yahoo.com/...
(More on the flip.)
It appears that another plank of support has emerged for the "inevitable" Hillary theme. For someone who does not support her candidacy in the primaries, that is unfortunate news. I diaried about the delayed endorsement earlier:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Again, the big loser (again unfortunate news, since he is a great candidate) as a result of this decision is Edwards. He needs a boost to his campaign, and this would have been a good one.
I still believe that SEIU is playing it too safe, this time around. I understand that they feel burned about 2004's Dean endorsement, but still... this just seems like such a cop-out.
In a time of declining union rolls and clout, you need to shake things up a bit and take a chance. This just seems like politics as usual.
And the Hillary inevitablenought rolls on...
UPDATE: More detail from a related but different NYT story, on the issue of the state-by-state endorsements.
In a twist, the S.E.I.U.'s executive board decided that individual union locals should not make an endorsement, but rather that all the S.E.I.U. locals in a state should decide jointly whom to back as part of a statewide endorsement. The board called on S.E.I.U. units in the various states not to announce any endorsements before Oct. 15.
Under the endorsement rules the union adopted, if the S.E.I.U. in Iowa were hypothetically to endorse Mrs. Clinton while the S.E.I.U. in New York also endorsed Mrs. Clinton and the S.E.I.U. in Illinois backed Obama, the S.E.I.U. locals in New York could pay for members to go to Iowa to campaign for Mrs. Clinton, but S.E.I.U. locals in Illinois would not be allowed to send members to campaign for Mr. Obama in Iowa.
Andy Stern, the union's president, said in a statement, "The outcome of this election will decide whether we finally achieve comprehensive, affordable healthcare for everyone, whether we bring economic security and fairness to working people, whether we bring our sons and daughters home from a civil war in Iraq, and whether working people in America finally have the freedom to form unions without intimidation. Given the importance of this election, we are encouraging members and leaders to act on their passion for the candidates and get involved on a statewide basis."
The union's news release said that once there is a Democratic nominee, the union "will launch the largest and most comprehensive campaign in our history to help elect a president who truly cares about working families."
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...
DTH