Republican comptroller candidate confronts Giannoulias on SEIU endorsement

Ambush interviews aren't my favorite style of journalism, but since the mainstream media is largely overlooking the Service Employees International Union's ties to ACORN, sometimes stepping outside of the box is all that can be done to attract attention.

Comcast Sports Chicago's "Sportsaholic," William Kelly, is running for the Republican nomination for Illinois' comptroller.

Watch as State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is running for the US Senate, squirms as Kelly confronts the Chicago endorsement about not only accepting SEIU's endorsement of his campaign, but his seeking of it.



I rarely quote myself here, but I thought I'd return to an April teleconference call with Mitt Romney I participated in.

In my opinion, this is the real problem of SEIU political activism:

I was fortunate to ask a Romney question during the call, and my query regarded public sector unions--I mentioned SEIU and AFSCME--and whether it troubled him that government workers are conspiring to expand government.

I was pleasantly surprised by his answer, because Romney brought up a hypothetical scenario of a mayoral candidate who makes promises to teachers, firefighters, and police officers to win their endorsement. The candidate wins, and a few months later the new mayor is negotiating their union contracts--on behalf of the taxpayers. But Romney warned, "No one at the bargaining table is representing the citizens," and worse, that mayor is agreeing to obligations, expensive ones such as pensions and retiree health care, that are overlooked by the media because the financial outlay is down the road.

Related post:

Report from the bloggers' conference call about Employee FORCED Choice binding arbitration

Technorati tags: labor politics news Mitt Romney unions Illinois Election Alexi Giannoulias senate Illinois Politics seiu