SEIU candidate interviews
[from The Note]
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).