Neighborhood issues played a part in aldermanic endorsements by SEIU Illinois State Council in the 2011 Chicago city council races.

The service employees union played a big role in the same elections four years ago.

SEIU officials said they again plan to spend millions of dollars in the aldermanic races. The union represents more than 100,000 workers in Chicago.

Keith Kelleher is SEIU vice president. Questionnaires were distributed to the hundreds of candidates and some in-person interviews were done.

“The issues in the neighborhoods, issues around TIFs, home foreclosures, those are some of the big items that we talked about; education reform and the whole citywide economic development and how it’s been geared toward downtown and not the neighborhoods,” Kelleher said.

The union isn’t endorsing any candidates for mayor unless there’s a runoff election in April.

SEIU ENDORSED CANDIDATES FOR FEB. 22^nd Chicago Municipal Election