HELENA — The Montana Public Employees Association has endorsed Democrat Brian Schweitzer and his Republican running mate, Sen. John Bohlinger, for governor and lieutenant governor.

The 7,100-member union also endorsed these Democratic incumbents seeking re-election: Attorney General Mike McGrath, Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch and state Auditor John Morrison. MPEA also backed Bill Kennedy, Democratic candidate for secretary of state.

The public employees' union made the endorsements at its annual convention in Great Falls on Saturday. MPEA members attending the meeting cast endorsement ballots after listening to Schweitzer and his Republican opponent, Bob Brown, and Kennedy, McCulloch and Morrison.

Schweitzer outlined to union members his ideas for improving Montana's economy by adding value to the products of Montana's extractive and agricultural industries and the need for a new direction on Montana's tax policies. He told the union members how listening to line workers had provided him with ideas on improving state government efficiency, the MPEA press release said.

Earlier in the week, Schweitzer picked up the endorsement of the MEA-MFT, the state's largest union, which represents teachers and other school employees and some government employees.

McCulloch told the union members how the school funding litigation resulted from a decade of declining state support of education and increased local support. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena ruled this spring that the state's school funding was unconstitutionally inadequate.

In discussing state workers' pay, Morrison said he learned from an informal in-house survey in his office that 19 of the 68 employees there held down more than one job. He said quality workers on his staff frequently were unable to support their families on state pay.

Kennedy, a Yellowstone County commissioner, said he believed his ‘‘hands-on'' approach to public service would help him succeed in getting more Montanans to the polls and reinvigorating involvement in voting.