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February 1, 2008
California SEIU Endorses Obama
While John Edwards never placed higher than 2nd in any Caucus or Primary this election season, his strong union message amplified throughout the race. But, despite his how the other half lives message, support he garnered among some unions did not translate into wins, or even very strong finishes.
While Edwards might have benefited from the multitude of unions in California, he chose to exit the race Wednesday, leaving a black hole of voters for which both Obama and Clinton continue to jockey.
Recently, the Los Angeles wing of the California Teachers Assn. switched allegiances from Clinton to Obama and now, that jockeying has apparently paid off for the Illinois Senator as the state council of the Service Employees International Union plans to endorse him later today, the AP is reporting.
The SEIU has about 650,000 members in California. Many are city, county and state workers, others are in-home support and health care workers. SEIU's backing could help Obama cut into Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in the polls among Democratic base voters, many of whom are union members.Union officials said they plan a limited operation on Obama's behalf. They will urge their members to vote for Obama, but do not plan to do a wider get out the vote effort. [AP]
Obama is slowly eating away at Clinton's once double digit lead in California. According to the latest poll from Rasmussen, Clinton's 11 point lead from last week has shrunk to 6 percentage points and many of Edwards' former supporters now seem to be tilting toward Obama.
Picture of Obama via photo.monkey from Flickr.
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Do people really vote a certain way because a union they belong top endorses a certain candidate? Are they that easily swayed?
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So the unions are swinging toward Obama... I wonder when the CTA will settle on endorsing a candidate? Before Tuesday I presume?!?
Also, poll-wise, Gallup's latest (conducted the 28-30, mostly before Edwards dropped out) lists:
Clinton: 43 %
Obama: 39%
Edwards: 8%
Exciting!
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People are proud of the unions they belong to (many are). They're not "easily swayed" nor do they HAVE to vote the same way their union does. But it's an endorsement, in just the same way that a person or organization you care about endorses a candidate.
SO exciting to see the gap narrowing between clinton and obama. And i'm hoping Edwards supporters (like me) go for Obama. His vision is the closest to Edwards (even though sometimes clinton and obama seem to have very similar policies and voting records).
Hillary's in the pockets of the biggest names on wall street, has taken the most money from health insurance and drug companies (how is she going to negotiate a good health care plan this way?), is STILL a warmonger (will not even yesterday on the debate apologize for her vote FOR the iraq war, while insulting the populations' intelligence), and she's more of the same Clinton establishment. People want someone different. Clinton is trying to shroud herself as someone different and that might be working, but lookin' at the facts, I do hope that more and more edwards supporters help obama out in california. ok, enough from me.
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i belong to seiu and i do not have to vote the same way and support obama, and, i'm not.
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While the endorsment is a great news for Obama, it is not a big deal. The Culinary Workers in Nevada endorsed him, and he lost at 7 of the 9 casinos where the voters were all members of the union.