Prometheus 6

Mr. Edwards lost the endorsement of a giant public sector union, the 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers, to Mrs. Clinton this month. And the Illinois S.E.I.U. local decided to support Mr. Obama.

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

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.”

Last month, the union’s national board, which represents nearly 1.9 million workers, voted to leave it up to state councils to decide whom to back. On Monday, union leaders said state councils in California, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana Ohio, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia, which represent half of the union’s membership, had endorsed Mr. Edwards.

Mr. Edwards’s other endorsements include the Transport Workers Union of America, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America, his campaign said.

But there is still plenty of terrain to cover, with other unions divided over whom to endorse. The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council, for instance, voted in August against endorsing any presidential candidate, setting the stage for its 55 member unions to make individual endorsements.