2008 CAMPAIGN | 7 hopefuls to make pitch at Soldier Field forum

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/498617,CST-NWS-sweet06.article

Labor taking close look at Dems
2008 CAMPAIGN | 7 hopefuls to make pitch at Soldier Field forum

August 6, 2007
BY LYNN SWEET lsweet@ suntimes.com
SANTA MONICA, CALIF. -- Last Tuesday evening in Washington, White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) dined with AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney and about a dozen presidents of the labor organization's affiliates at Il Mulino, an elegant Italian restaurant.

Obama and all of the other Democratic presidential contenders are wooing Sweeney and other union leaders. Rival former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has been the most overt in courting unions, but right now the nation's largest labor federations are looking for a winner, and Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are the front-runners. With a labor-friendly Democratic field, it seems unlikely that any Democrat will pick up an early primary endorsement from either labor federation.

"They are all very good candidates," said Karen Ackerman, the political director of the AFL-CIO. "Everyone I know would be thrilled to stand behind any one of them."

On Tuesday, seven of the eight Democratic candidates will gather on a stage at Soldier Field -- in the north end zone -- for the AFL-CIO's Working Families President Forum. It's the latest in a string of Democratic forums and debates, different because the audience will be between 12,000 and 14,000 union members and their families, drawn from Chicago's extensive labor community and union activists from surrounding states.

The forum, moderated by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, runs for 90 minutes, starting at 6 p.m. It will be televised live on MSNBC and XM satellite radio.

FULL article at link.