April 09, 2009 09:15 PM UTC

Udall Will Vote For Free Choice Cloture

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• by: Colorado Pols

Noted by the Colorado Independent:

Chalk up another vote to bring the controversial Employee Free Choice Act, known as EFCA, to the full U.S. Senate for consideration. Ending plenty of speculation, a spokeswoman for Colorado Sen. Mark Udall on Wednesday morning told The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent the Boulder Democrat will cast a key vote to bring the sweeping labor-backed legislation to a vote.

That brings backers one step closer to the necessary 60 votes required for the Senate to hear the legislation, which would then only need a simple majority vote to pass.

He’s from Eldorado Springs, which is not Boulder. We’ve been down this road.

Udall does this at a time when the 60 votes needed for cloture seems more unlikely than ever–but it also puts him in a strong position to negotiate on a compromise should the cloture vote fail. It’s important to note that Udall still says there are “problems” with the bill as written. The Independent also reminds that Sen. Michael Bennet is still evaluating his position on Free Choice while battle lines are drawn–we’ll see if Udall’s move evokes any new specificity from him, we’d say it certainly ought to widen the comfort zone for doing so.