SEIU backs Al Franken

Posted at 10:44 AM on February 26, 2008 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

AP has the story:

ST. PAUL (AP) - The Minnesota State Council of the Service Employees International Union has endorsed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken.
The union says it had candidates seeking endorsement spend a workday with an SEIU member. Franken spent one with a Robbinsdale nursing home worker. The SEIU has more than 28,000 members in Minnesota.
Franken previously won endorsements from Education Minnesota, which represents 70,000 teachers, and Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 43,000 public and nonprofit employees.
The satirist's leading rival for the DFL Party endorsement, attorney Mike Ciresi, has the backing of another AFSCME local, Council 65, which represents 13,000 county government employees.

Comments (1)

In my opinion, the best reason for an organization to endorse a candidate is because that candidate most fully stands for the needs of the organization's members on the issues.

A clear criteria for endorsement based in issues that matter most to the organization has not been spelled out. Without that, the endorsement looks like little more than a bet for who, at that moment in time, is the Democrat most likely to win the endorsement of the party. This dilutes the advancement of the issues that matter most to the membership.

For example, service workers need single payer health care. Without it, they will always be getting less health care than they need. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is the only Senate advocate of single payer. Another example might be that the single most pressing need for education is funding. National funding is caught up in military spending, sepecially in Iraq. Again, the candidate who has the clearest position for withdrawal from Iraq and reduction of military spending with a shift to education and other services is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.

Jack got the endorsement of Take Action Minnesota, an issues based progressive group.

Posted by Paul Rozycki | February 27, 2008 1:45 PM

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