NEW YORK, NY February 01, 2006 —Democrat Eliot Spitzer is poised to get the endorsement of the state's powerful Health Care Workers Union, in his bid to become governor. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

1199 of the Service Employees International Union is seen as having the most effective get-out-the-vote effort in the state, and candidates usually like to trumpet the endorsement to get maximum P.R. value. But today a group of union loyalists were bused to rally in Harlem designed to showcase Eliot Spitzer's newly-chosen Lt. Governor candidate, David Paterson.

There, they displayed bright purple and yellow Spitzer-Paterson placards. The union's political director, Jennifer Cunningham, said this wasn't a formal endorsement, but acknowledged an endorsement is "imminent." In 2002, the union endorsed Governor Pataki early in the campaign. That endorsement was widely seen as key in Pataki's victory over Democrat Carl McCall.