AFSCME votes to endorse Obama for reelection

[jefferson_dem]

AFSCME votes to endorse Obama for reelection

By Peter Wallsten

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees voted Tuesday to officially endorse President Obama in the 2012 election.

Union officials have already said they planned to spend upwards of $100 million to help Obama win reelection, so the endorsement itself is not a surprise.
But Obama has had a rocky relationship with labor and other facets of his political base, and having the full-throated and unequivocal support of the AFL-CIO’s largest union could add a spark as the reelection campaign works to rebuild its grassroots machinery.

AFSCME officials said their ground-level organization in several presidential battleground states is finely-tuned following battles over public-sector worker bargaining rights in Ohio and Wisconsin.

Tuesday’s vote was so important to Obama’s team that campaign manager Jim Messina attended the meeting. He told the AFSCME board the union’s backing “demonstrates that its workers know President Obama is the only one willing to make the hard choices.”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/afscme-votes-to-endorse-obama-for-reelection/2011/12/06/gIQAjJanZO_blog.html