AFSCME Public Employees Union Votes To Endorse Obama, Will Spend $100 Million To Help Reelect Him(WaPo) — 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.
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.”
Union officials said the endorsement could help revive enthusiasm for Obama, despite his failure to push the Employee Free Choice Act, known as “card check,” which would have made it easier for unions to organize. Some also felt the president was not aggressive enough in his support for public workers in their battles with GOP governors. And a number of labor leaders have bitterly criticized the White House for its courtship of corporate America over the past year, with some unions picketing a speech that Obama delivered earlier this year at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
A poll of AFSCME’s 1.6 million members found they overwhelmingly backed Obama, with about a quarter expressing support for a Republican opponent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/afscme-votes-to-endorse-obama-for-reelection/2011/12/06/gIQAjJanZO_blog.htmlWhile people piss and moan about corporations spending money on election, here we have ONE union planning to drop
$100 MILLION on getting Obama reelected. Anyone who claims this guy isn't bought and paid for by these thugs is a fucking lying rat.
$100 million. From one union. Stunning.
Why don't they give this money back to some of the states they've bankrupted?