(The Washington Post posted the following article on its website on September 8.)
WASHINGTON — The Democratic presidential candidates will troop before another of the party’s constituency groups here in Washington today at the convention of the Service Employees International Union, but this will be more than the ordinary candidate forum.
The SEIU is one of the largest unions in the AFL-CIO, and its members have not yet endorsed a candidate for the Democratic nomination. This week’s meetings will help determine whether any of the Democratic candidates receive the union’s backing.
The candidates will each speak to the members and will be seen in other ways. SEIU officials recruited a group of young filmmakers to travel with each of the candidates and prepare short videos designed to present the human sides of the politicians.
The SEIU members will see Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.) talking about what his grandchildren call him (“Doodle,” and when he’s really good to them, “Super Doodle”). They’ll see Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) try to rave about how much he likes hot dogs.
And they’ll see Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) threading a microphone up through his shirt as one of the filmmakers asks him if he would drink a beer with them if they brought a six-pack to the interview the next day.
“You’re damn right I would,” Kerry says. “I might drink more than one.”
“Good news,” says the filmmaker.
The candidates won’t get anywhere with the SEIU leadership without a plan for expanding health care coverage, but union President Andrew L. Stern said that the films and other activities planned for the candidates will help his members gauge how well the Democratic contenders connect with voters.
“We think it’s very important that by the [time of the] elections, voters have a sense this is a candidate they would like to have dinner with, go bowling with,” he said. “I think George Bush did incredibly well in the last election, and Al Gore had his problems.”