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Clinton Gets Major Union Endorsement
October 31, 2007 9:00 AM
ABC News' Teddy Davis and Eloise Harper Report: On the heels of a rough debate, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., showed off the institutional strength of her candidacy on Wednesday when she picked up the endorsement of the nation's public employees union.
"Six guys against Hillary and I'd call that a fair fight," said AFSCME President Gerry McEntee, referring to Tuesday's Philadelphia debate in which Clinton's Democratic rivals joined together in arguing that she does not give straight answers to tough questions. Keeping with the "fighter" theme, a sea of AFSCME workers wore green t-shirts at Wednesday's event which read "when it comes to fighting for America's families, I'll go ten rounds with anybody."
Clinton's critics -- from the Republican National Committee to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama -- sought to blunt the endorsement's impact by pointing to the union's long history with former President Bill Clinton: AFSCME endorsed Clinton early in his 1992 presidential bid and reportedly played a role in courting the union this time.
But the endorsement of the 1.4-million member American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is one of the big "gets" in Democratic politics.
The powerful public employees union, which represents 30,000 members in Iowa alone, is planning to spend $60 million over the course of 2008 primary and general-election campaign. It is also promising to mobilize a 40,000-member "army of volunteers" for Clinton.
In order to avoid a repeat of 2004 when AFSCME's support of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean did not seem to transfer to the union's rank-and-file, McEntee has explained that his union "drilled down deep" into the views of its members this time.
AFSCME's evaluation process included two presidential candidate forums. One took place in Nevada and was moderated by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos; another took place in Washington, D.C., and was moderated by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.
October 31, 2007 in Political Radar | Permalink | Share | User Comments (6)
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So the labor unuon that works for the government is endorsing Clinton? So what, these union members WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT. Their endorsement and 'get out the vote' effort will have no effect on her chances of winning the nomination.
Posted by: PJ | Oct 31, 2007 10:17:37 AM
Good for her. She is still the strongest candidate in the race, Democrat or Republican. At least at the debate last night she tried to speak of the issues instead of focusing her attacks on other Dems.
Posted by: Mark | Oct 31, 2007 10:58:19 AM
Gerry McEntee is awesome! Such a cool guy.
Posted by: BenMurphyNYC | Oct 31, 2007 11:12:55 AM
An I am assuming that all the employees go along with this?? or would the union come after them if they didn't.
Somehow, I remember the teacher's union was too happy with an Edwards endorsement??
Posted by: Paulet | Oct 31, 2007 11:14:13 AM
AFSCME...American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees support more of the same Clinton. Wonder who gets an ambassador posting for delivering this one!
Posted by: GM | Oct 31, 2007 11:57:50 AM
I am sick and tired of all these men ganging on Hillary Clinton. Look around
you and tell me if you are better now or when Bill Clinton was in the office.
The price of food,gas,health care etc.are all going up.What are you republicans afraid of Mrs Clinton for can some one explain to me why everybody attacking her instead of talking about the issues affecting us.
I have not voted in the past elections
but come rain or sun, I MUST VOTE THIS
TIME FOR A WOMAN SO GO FIGURE.You can hate her as much as you can and my question is,WHY? Fellow democrats do not
forget what the republicans did to John
Kerry,Al Gore, Maxclelan.Do not let them
fool you this time please.
Posted by: UGOCHUKWU | Nov 5, 2007 3:17:18 AM
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