#SEIU has a stroke of union genius: look for #GOP candidates

The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU as it is commonly known, has taken organized labor's formal and informal pledges to separate themselves from close connection to the Democratic Party one step further.

SEIU's California branch has now created a Republican-specific PAC to try to get more moderate-conservative GOPers, rather than wingnuts, elected to state offices there.

Given that, under Andy Stern, the SEIU was more "cozy" with big biz than any other major union, this should NOT be dismissed by wingnuts, Faux News and others as merely a publicity stunt. This alone should make that clear:

"Our legislators are harangued by radio talk show hosts like John and Ken and D.C. ideologues like Grover Norquist," said Bob Schoonover, president of SEIU Local 721 in Southern California.

Schoonover, a registered Republican, said lawmakers are afraid to do the right thing.

"We've lost the art of compromise that allows us to make deals in tough times," he said.

Note that second graf: A registered Republican. The story notes that the union claims 87,000 of its 700,000 members are registered Republicans.

Big biz, in general, has little use for tea party types and likes "stability" rather than confrontation in most levels of government. (The U.S. Chamber of Commerce could be called the exception to the rule.)

Some GOPers are already trying just that, though:

Republican strategist Kevin Spillane said the union wouldn't have a significant effect--no matter how much money the union spends.

"This is just sound and fury," he said. "It's political posturing to influence and intimidate some of the current Republican legislators. The reality is that we're not talking a real widespread impact in next year's elections."

I disagree. With Gov. Jerry Brown needing just four GOP votes, as the state legislature now stands, to achieve a long-term solution for California budget woes, this could be very serious.

I don't know enough about the Cal GOP to know where Spillane butters his bread, but, from what little I have Googled, he seems to NOT be a wingnut type. So, he may be puffing smoke out of real fear about this move.

That said, big biz has no problem with trying to push the "stability meter" ever further rightward, so, SEIU might not, given that history, be the best union to do this, at least not alone.