SEIU Gets a Crack at the Democratic '08ers:
Over the next two days, the roughly 60 people who sit on the international executive board of the Service Employees International Union will get to question the Democratic presidential hopefuls at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.
The presidential hopefuls participating today are Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), former Sen. John Edwards (D- NC), Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). On Saturday, SEIU's board members will meet with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and will hear from Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) and former Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-IA) via satellite.
Today's one-on-one closed press meetings with Democratic '08ers start at 9:00 am ET and will run all day. Each candidate will appear for about 30 minutes with about 15 minutes devoted to prepared remarks and 15 minutes devoted to answering questions that SEIU board members pose.
People on the board represent about 90 percent of SEIU's members: they are the leaders of the local unions that SEIU has around the country. It is believed that each of the Democratic '08ers will be introduced by an SEIU board members who has worked with that particular political figure in the past on legislation or an organizing campaign.
"We want to know where the candidates stand on issues that matter most to our members: affordable health care, good jobs, and retirement security," said SEIU's Stephanie Mueller.
SEIU plans to pressure each of the Democratic '08ers to attend the health-care forum that the union is holding in Las Vegas, NV on March 24.
(Side Note: after initially indicating that he wanted to a Q&A session with SEIU's board members, Gen. Wesley Clark notified SEIU on Thursday that he would not be appearing before the group either in person or via satellite).