Largest Union in California Says It Will Work for Edwards There and Elsewhere

[Nutmegger]

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.

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.”

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

[saltpoint]

1. Very good news for us pro-union, pro-Edwards voters.

The Edwards campaign team has made it a point to align with people with views and circumstances diametrically opposite from the constituencies the Republicans rely on and pander to.

I think it's damned impressive and I love it.

Congrats to the Carolinian.

Also I like the smiles between Mr. and Mrs. Edwards in that photo.