SEIU Political Director for Iowa Says She “Admires” Edwards

The Register was a little late with its coverage of Sen. John Edwards’s decision to accept matching funds, but the article that did go up included some interesting quotes from Sarah Swisher, Iowa political director for the SEIU. Here’s how the Register presented it:

An Iowa union leader who closely follows politics said she respects Edwards’ choice.
“Consistently, John Edwards has said he is not going to take money from the big Washington insiders,” said Sarah Swisher, Iowa political director for the Service Employees International Union.

Swisher said neither she nor her union has chosen a candidate to support, but she admires Edwards. “His appeal is to ordinary folks, and he always makes that clear,” she said, adding that his good standing with such people could help him overcome any deficit in money to buy advertising.

I suppose it’s no surprise that Swisher supports Edwards. The SEIU’s membership nationally supported Edwards in their straw poll a few weeks ago, but not by enough of a margin to justify an endorsement yet. Edwards has courted organized labor very deliberately locally and at the national level. But the fact that Swisher is toeing the Edwards line in public, while her international’s endorsement is the subject of so much speculation, is interesting.