Originally published at BlueNC
Organizational Endorsements
SEIU
There was talk that Clinton and Obama had dealt a huge blow to Edwards by blocking the will of the workers. John Edwards received ~55% of the votes in the SEIU strawpoll that is supposed to decide who SEIU endorses. However, the two largest locals are Illinois and New York, and they played politics to block the endorsement. The result? It appears to be a bunch of pissed-off locals who are making their own feelings known. The latest in Massachusetts.
California (656,000 members)
Washington State(103,000)
Massachusetts (90,000 members)
Michigan (70,000 members)
Oregon (46,000 members)
Minnesota (28,000 members)
Ohio (22,000 members)
West Virginia (4,000 members)
Iowa (2000 members)
Idaho (400 members)
Montana (500 members)
Most important about these endorsements are the implications due to rules Andy Stern laid down after the New York and Illinois contingent played their veto cards.
The rule states that no other local may participate in any way in a state that has endorsed a different candidate. In other words, since Iowa endorsed John Edwards the only locals that can come to IA or make phone calls to IA are those that have also endorsed John Edwards. Nearly a million SEIU members in all so far.
There are two states that we are waiting to hear from anxiously. Nevada and New Hampshire. If Edwards wins these states then that gives him the whole playing field, even with the politics-as-usual of the Obama and Clinton camp.
In his shirt sleeves, while munching on pretzels and sipping a beer, John Edwards laid out his case for why he should win the endorsement of the New Hampshire chapter of the SEIU in Concord Saturday night.
Edwards met with about twenty-five members of the union’s executive board and political education committee to ask for the state union’s endorsement, NBC News has learned. Even though the national SEIU has not endorsed in the race, state chapters are free to do so starting on Monday. On Saturday, NBC News reported that Edwards had won the endorsement of the Iowa state chapter of SEIU...There is a push within the union to make an endorsement before it’s state convention on October 27th. The political education committee is expected to meet next week to recommend a candidate to the executive board of the union."Right now it appears it might be Edwards," a member of the committee told NBC. In years past, the recommendation of the committee carries great weight and the board usually votes in favor of that recommendation.
Friends of the Earth Endorsement
Individual Endorsements.
How much do these matter, I honestly don't know, but there were a couple interesting ones this week.
First, from Georgia (a full list of endorsers is available here).
Former Gov. Roy Barnes and former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor held a Capitol reunion of sorts Thursday, getting together for a press conference to support John Edwards' presidential campaign....
Barnes said Southern Democrats have too often had to tip-toe around their nominees because they weren't popular in the region. He said that won't be the case with Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina.
"I am ready for a president that talks like I do and I can understand without an interpreter," Barnes added.
Barnes said Clinton will have a difficult time winning the general election because so many Americans have a negative view of her. "Whether we like it or not, she's a polarizing figure and I think she would have a very difficult time being elected and governing," he said. Taylor said, "I am ready for a president who can bring people together."
More importantly, former Congressmen and Dukes of Hazzard Star Ben "Cooter" Jones.
Then, there is the "True Blue Majority" Campaign moving across purple and red states, including so far:
Georgia
Wisconsin
Rural Voters.
This is from an article in the Des Moines Register, you should go read the whole thing.
While Obama and Clinton have only recently discovered the fact that 49 percent of Iowa's Democratic caucus-goers live in rural and small-town Iowa, Edwards has been mining those tiny lodes for years.
For example, his schedule for Wednesday called for him to spend the day in far-northwest Iowa, where Democrats are ordinarily found only on endangered-species lists. (I know Democrats running for governor who don't make it to Rock Rapids.) Yet Edwards was to campaign there, and end his day on a hog farm near Cylinder, population 110.
While he didn't get a rock star's crowd in Waukee this week, he did get 257 local Democrats to show up: Retirees. Farmers. Teachers. Working folks. A few suburbanites In short, he attracted a crowd that looked exactly like the types of people who actually show up at a Democratic caucus in January. (Or December.)
"I come from small-town America," he tells them. "It's where I grew up. My folks still live in the town [where] I spent most of my time growing up," he said. "It's important to me personally that we take the steps we need to strengthen small towns and rural America."
Compare this to what Hillary Clinton has been up to lately.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina – In response to reports that Senator Clinton is planning a "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch and campaign briefing at the DC offices of Troutman Sanders Public Affairs, the lobbying firm for Monsanto, John Edwards for President communications director Chris Kofinis released the following statement:
"While John Edwards was in rural Iowa yesterday talking about his plans to help family farmers, the Clinton campaign was in Washington, DC planning an event with the lobbyists from the biggest corporate agriculture company in the world. The difference between John Edwards and Hillary Clinton could not be more clear. Here's some news for the Clinton campaign, when folks in rural Iowa talk about the problems with hog lots, they don't mean parking lots on K Street.
Finally, Elizabeth Edwards will be on Deal or No Deal this week. : )
Not a bad week at all.