The Service Employees International Union has postponed its presidential endorsement until October, underscoring divisions within the powerful labor group over front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, sentimental favorite John Edwards and latest star Barack Obama.
Each of the top-tier candidates has support within the 1.8-million member union, which 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 details plan to fight AIDS
John Edwards has laid out a detailed plan to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. Speaking in Washington, the candidate called for increased funding to provide medicine to people around the world who have the disease, as well as targeted programs in the U.S. focused on blacks and Latinos, who suffer infection at higher rates than whites. Edwards also called for a Cabinet-level post on global poverty and criticized the Bush administration for focusing too much on abstinence as a way to combat AIDS.
