As the daily papers reported this morning, the SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website) has opted to join the Teamsters Joint Council in supporting Gov. Pat Quinn in the 2010 Democratic primary.  “Pat Quinn is the right choice to lead Illinois out of this recession,” said SEIU Illinois President Tom Balanoff in a statement.  "He has been a fighter for working families all of his life."

Taken together, these are powerhouse endorsements.  The two unions have more than 270,000 combined members across the state, as well as deep campaign warchests. At the SEIU offices in downtown Chicago this morning, Quinn thanked them for their support, repeating his pledge to be "aggressive and progressive."  Watch an excerpt from his remarks:

Talking to reporters, Balanoff commended Quinn's efforts to generate new revenue during the spring legislative session and looked towards the next round in that fight. "This is a crisis. Now is the time that we need to take decisive action. And that action really needs to be geared toward keeping Illinois strong.  And the way we do that is to keep working families strong," Balanoff said.  "We need political leaders who are willing to step up and make the hard decisions. So we will support the governor and we will support all others who are fighting to raise revenue and understand that's the only way we can keep these basic services." 

Quinn also used the occasion to give a shout-out to AFSCME Council 31, which hasn't announced which Democratic gubernatorial candidate it intends to support: 

QUINN: I want to say a word about the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.  They're my good friends. They've been my friends since 1972, when I helped them organize the union and get recognized by the state of Illinois. ... I like all the leaders and members of AFSCME.  I want to work with them on solving a tough problem.  As Tom said, we need to have more revenue in our state government to balance the budget and pay for fundamental things like education and public safety.

In his SouthtownStar column today, Rich Miller noted AFSCME's dilemma when it comes to this race:

The budget cuts Hynes proposes (rolling back the state's operating budget to fiscal year 2005 levels, for instance) won't go over well with state employee unions such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, among other Democratic constituency groups.

But considering the way Quinn has treated AFSCME this year - demanding contract givebacks and threatening massive layoffs - the union probably has no place else to go in the Democratic primary unless another strong candidate steps into the race.