2008 Candidates (Kerry mentioned) will appear Saturday with the SEIU

The 60-member board will spend an hour with the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination on Saturday in a question-and-answer session aimed at probing the aspirants' stances on issues important to organized labor. Unfortunately for The Fix (and all of you), the event is not open to the press.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), Sen. Joe Biden (Del.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) will appear in person. Former Gov. Tom Vilsack (Iowa) and Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.) will appear via video feed. Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), who is expected to announce his intentions within the next few weeks, is sending in a video to the board. Requests to appear have also been made to Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and retired Gen. Wesley Clark (Ark.)

The turnout speaks to the importance that SEIU -- and organized labor more generally -- plays in the Democratic nominating process. With nearly 2 million members nationwide, SEIU is the largest and fastest growing union in the country. It is also a leading part of Change to Win, a rump group of unions that split from the AFL-CIO in 2005.

SEIU has considerable influence in several of the early voting states -- Iowa and Nevada in particular. Edwards in particular has been assiduously courting the unions in hopes of winning their endorsement in 2008. Clinton as well as Obama should enjoy significant support from organized labor and will likely challenge Edwards for their backing.

Some Democratic strategists have begun to question the power of labor unions as endorsers, however, pointing to the 2004 election as evidence of their diminished influence.

In that race SEIU and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) issued a joint endorsement of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean prior to the Iowa caucuses. Rep. Dick Gephardt (Mo.) also enjoyed a bevy of endorsements from labor groups. Neither man placed in the top two in Iowa and their campaigns soon ended.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/01/seius_1st_cattle_call.html