"SEIU down to 3 Dems for endorsement" (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Political Wire has this from Marc Ambinder:

a private straw poll of SEIU members shows the union will likely endorse either John Edwards or Barack Obama. SEIU President Andy Stern said the group will likely endorse late next month."Sources close to the SEIU executive board would not tell me whether Edwards or Obama scored higher in the poll but did acknowledge that both had polled the highest. An SEIU spokesperson said the union would not reveal the results."

AP:

Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are the finalists for a crucial endorsement from the Service Employees International Union, one of organized labor's most powerful unions.

In winnowing the field Wednesday, the union asked the three candidates to make their appeals at the Change to Win conference in Chicago next week, where they'll be given another chance to persuade SEIU to back their candidacy.

The campaigns will have "to lay out their strategies to win in November so we can clearly understand how our goals to electing a pro-worker candidate can be achieved," said Anna Burger, who is the SEIU's secretary-treasurer and Change To Win's chair.

An SEIU endorsement would give a boost to any candidate, but Obama, Clinton and Edwards clearly were the favorites of the SEIU faithful who heard them speak at a labor forum Monday.

"They clearly stand for the issues that are dear to us," SEIU President Andy Stern said.

The organization says it is the nation's fastest growing union with more than 1.8 million members. It is also a major player in Democratic fundraising, donating more than $25 million to mostly Democratic candidates since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Laborers International Union of North America also announced Wednesday it would not immediately endorse any of the candidates that spoke to its members in Chicago on Monday. Instead, the 500,000-member union will conduct internal polling and endorse only after a candidate reaches a 60 percent threshold, said president Terence M. O'Sullivan.

"Our members view this as a presidential race about their everyday concerns, not an endorsement race," O'Sullivan said.

The Laborers also have given more than $25 million in federal campaign contributions since 1989, with $23 million going to Democrats.

Clinton and Edwards have gotten most of the early labor endorsements, with both lining up four unions. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was endorsed by the International Association of Firefighters.

The Laborers endorsed Dick Gephardt in 2003, and SEIU endorsed Howard Dean. The early endorsements didn't pan out for either the candidates or the unions as John Kerry won in Iowa and was the eventual nominee.

Both SEIU and the Laborers are members of Change To Win, whose seven unions broke away from the AFL-CIO to form their own labor federation. Only one of Change To Win's unions has endorsed a candidate: the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners endorsed Edwards in August.

The AFL-CIO has said it will not endorse anyone in the early primaries, but has freed its unions to endorse.