AFL-CIO Endorsement to come in March

As the primary calendars get moved up, apparently so do the endorsements in the never ending race to have your voice or your organization matter in the political process. Something seems broken with the current system...

According to AFL-CIO spokesperson Steve Smith, they are "working out details right now" for their WH '08 endorsement and are likely to announce their decision in early March, following their first Executive Council Meeting since the Nov. '06 elections in Las Vegas, NV, March 6th - 8th.Each of the 54 national and international labor unions within the AFL-CIO has their own respective endorsement processes and must be considered in forming the general AFL-CIO endorsement. The AFL-CIO endorsed Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in Feb. '04, but Smith noted they "do not usually" make their endorsement decision as early as they plan to this cycle.

The AFL-CIO was the group of Unions that had much strife in 2004. A group of unions broke away and endorsed Howard Dean earlier in the primary season. Of course neither candidate won, thus furthering the weakened position of organized labor. The same unions that endorsed Howard Dean formed a new consensus called Change To Win. They are a more progressive group and I could see them going for Obama possibly, as he had wide support from them in his Illinois campaigns. As for the AFL-CIO, it has to be either Edwards (who has been very invested in courting labor the past four years) or Clinton (for ties to Bill). Of course, they could always come out and say "no endorsement", but then why would they have all this press about the decision? The choice to endorse continues to hurt the lesser known candidates who have very little time to establish themselves to stay viable in the mix of the big 3. Stay tuned!

Update: Hotline got it wrong. The AFL-CIO will announce its endorsement process in the coming weeks, NOT its endorsement. (Thanks to poster in comments for pointing this out).