For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Democratic Presidential Candidates Meet at AFSCME Presidential Forum
WASHINGTON —The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) held a Democratic Presidential Forum as part of its 2007 National Leadership Conference on Tuesday, June 19, 2007, in Washington, DC. Chris Matthews, MSNBC Election Anchor and host of the network’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” moderated the event, covered live by MSNBC.
More than 2,000 AFSCME members and retirees from around the United States attended the forum, the second AFSCME has sponsored in 2007. In February, the 1.4 million-member union held the nation’s first Presidential forum of the 2008 election cycle in Carson City, Nev.
Candidates attending the forum were: U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
The forum took place during the AFSCME national political conference where the union’s top activists came to train and plan for the 2008 campaign. “We’re after the Trifecta: the House, the Senate and the White House,” said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. “We’re building an army of 40,000 activists who will pound the pavement, make calls and knock on doors. We’ll have a grassroots army that is second to none.”
In 2006, AFSCME executed the most aggressive, well-funded and successful mid-term political program in the union’s history, mobilizing more members and investing more money than any non-party committee, spending a record $44 million to win back Congress and influence gubernatorial contests, state legislative races and key ballot initiatives.
That year, AFSCME ran a political program in 41 states and was active in more than 200 races at the state and federal level. The union was the driving force behind labor’s successful get-out-the-vote program, and union households provided the margin of victory in the election.
