Today brought some great news for the re-election campaign of Senator Arlen Specter (D PA) as he won endorsement of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, the powerful umbrella union which has over 900,000 members in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The AFL-CIO met with each candidate seperately before making its decision.
Specter has been endorsed on numerous previous occasions by the AFL-CIO and has a track record as both a Democrat and Republican as being there for working families according to AFL-CIO President Bill George:
"In our opinion Senator Arlen Specter is the strongest advocate and supporter for good jobs, fair trade policies, workers’ rights and quality affordable health care for all," state AFL-CIO president Bill George said in a statement. "He is a proven leader who has stood with working families when the chips are down, especially his key role in passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009 which has protected jobs, helped unemployed workers, and prevented this nation from sinking into another great depression.
http://www.pa2010.com/...
Specter receiving the AFL-CIO endorsement comes as welcoming news to Specter's campaign, as he has received a significant majority of the key labor constituency backings from the local county labor councils, to Building Trades, and the list continues on and on.
Organized labor is no where more influential in determining the outcome of elections than in Pennsylvania. For Rep. Sestak as primary election day approaches, the map appears to be getting increasingly smaller as Specter has been able to maintain a steady 20-25 point lead in primary polling to go with almost weekly additions of Union endorsements.