Service industry union, environmentalist team up to target Colorado in new 2016 election effort

WASHINGTON — One of the country’s biggest unions is teaming up with a bold-faced name in the environmental community to try to drum up votes this year in the battleground states of Colorado, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The Service Employees International Union and Tom Steyer, founder of NextGen Climate, announced Friday that the two groups would spend a combined $10 million in the three states for voter registration and other get-out-the-vote efforts ahead of November’s election. They hinted other states could be added later.

No specific candidates would be targeted, but Steyer said the overall campaign is intended to help Democrats defeat Republicans. “What we’re trying to do is an old-fashioned voter engagement effort more than anything else,” he said.

Organizers said part of the operation would focus on turning out minority voters — notably black and Latino communities in the metropolitan Denver area. They did not reveal how the $10 million investment would be divided among Colorado, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/15/seiu-tom-steyer-target-colorado-election/