by Mike Hall, Mar 14, 2007

The Fire Fighters (IAFF) union is hosting the nation’s first bipartisan presidential debate of the 2008 election season, and Mike Hall is live-blogging today from the meeting in Washington, D.C. Each candidate will speak for 15 minutes.

More than 900 members of the Fire Fighters union are sitting in on today’s presidential forum at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. And those we talked with here say they have high expectations for any 2008 candidate who will get their votes.

Jack Reall, president of IAFF Local 67 in Columbus, Ohio, says he wants to make sure the candidates have “done their homework” and he wants to hear

what message I can take back to our members so that when we do decide on a candidate, I can explain to them what’s behind it and why we did it. We have a pretty active political program on the state and local level.

Each candidate must make a strong case for his or her position, says Fire Fighter James Bowe from Erie, Pa. Says Bowe:

I imagine they’re all going to say the same thing, how great we are, how underpaid we are and how they love us. But the boys from New Mexico say they really like their gov [Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson]. I’ve never heard him, so I’m interested in what he has to say.

Rick LoCicero from Local 589 in Newburgh, N.Y., says the forum is a good opportunity to hear from some of the candidates whom mainstream media ignores.

You don’t hear much about the others besides Hillary [Clinton] and [Barak] Obama. This is good chance to hear what they have to say and sort things out for myself.

I’m looking for somebody who is fire-fighter- and labor-friendly and [hear their stands] on the war. There a lot of people getting killed over there and I really don’t know what the reason is.

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