Largest Union in California Says It Will Work for Edwards There and Elsewhere [View All]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: N Y Times

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 — The state council of the Service Employees International Union publicly threw its weight behind John Edwards’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday and said it would rally its members here and in other states, including those holding early primaries, to support his campaign.

The union is the largest in California, with 656,000 members. Its backing is a significant achievement for Mr. Edwards, especially if the union is able to extend its organizational ability to the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.


David McNew/Getty Images

John Edwards on Friday in Los Angeles as members of the Service Employees International Union cheered his candidacy


Mr. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, has aggressively courted unions. Lagging in national polls behind his better-financed Democratic rivals, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, Mr. Edwards has looked to the unions as a way to amplify the campaign’s ground efforts.

“Twenty-four percent of the voting population in elections come from union households,” said Chris Chafe, a senior adviser to the campaign. “In the caucuses and primary states, the labor movement will be one of the only entities that is organized enough to deliver significant turnout and real votes.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/us/politics/20edwards.html?ref=us