SEIU delays presidential endorsement

CHICAGO (AP) — The Service Employees International Union has postponed its presidential endorsement until next month, underscoring divisions within the powerful labor group over front-runner Hillary RodhamClinton, sentimental favorite John Edwards and latest star Barack Obama.

Each of the top-tier candidates has support within the 1.8-million member union that includes janitors, hotel workers and truck drivers. SEIU backing is one of the most important labor endorsements available, with the organization donating more than $25 million, mostly to Democratic candidates, since 1989.

Edwards has won over many of the union’s leaders, yet that hasn’t translated into an endorsement. The SEIU’s executive board has decided to wait until October before deciding which candidate to endorse, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“The executive board has decided to go back to the local members and ask their opinions before making a decision,” Stephanie Mueller said.

Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee, has spent considerable time the past couple of years walking picket lines, speaking out for workers’ rights and seeking labor support. He was joining United Auto Workers on the picket line outside a General Motors plant in Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday.

An SEIU endorsement would have been a much-needed boost for him this week, creating excitement before this weekend’s third-quarter fund-raising deadline and helping to energize a campaign stuck in a distant third place everywhere but the first-voting state of Iowa.