January 18, 2008
"Que es un 'caucus' ?"
LAS VEGAS -- So much has been made by the Hillary Clinton folks of the Culinary Workers Union's endorsement of Barack Obama that it seems from the fuss that they expect it could carry the Illinois senator to some whopper of a victory.
But D. Taylor, secretary and treasurer of the union, told On Call today that if overall state turnout is between 25k and 30k, about three times the number who voted in 2004, Nevadans should count the primary a success.
"I think that would be tremendous," he said.
But whoa, wait a minute. Taylor's projection inherently suggests that the impact of the union vote could be modest at best.
With 60K members, the highly coveted Culinary Workers endorsement was thought to have the potential to tip things to the candidate of choice. We'll see if that happens. At this point, it's anyone's guess.
In the meantime, here are some tidbits about the group's ground game, per Pilar Maria Weiss, the union's political director.
-- There are 200 union members on the ground this week, either phone banking or door knocking in LV or Reno.
-- Mobile RVs are parked "all over the valley" to provide voter information to members, Weiss said.
-- Shuttle service to caucuses will be provided to anyone who needs it; however, Weiss couldn't provide a number of vehicles available.
From CNN's Lou Dobbs to off the record whispers of rival campaigns, there's buzz on the ground here that a significant portion of the union's membership is not eligible to vote. Weiss said today that 45 percent of the union's members are Latino, but she would not specify how many members are citizens, saying only: "Hispanic does not equal illegal."
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
The union's headquarters on South Commerce Street, meanwhile, appeared quiet today. The parking lot was largely vacant. Inside a large auditorium lined with union and Obama campaign posters was also empty. In the back of the room, stacks of flyers lined a long, white table.
One flyer answered the question, "Que es un caucus?" -- What is a caucus? Another read, "Culinary Workers for Obama, Make the Las Vegas Dream the American Dream." Still other lit pieces attacked Clinton directly ...
-- One asked "Where do the candidates stand on our issues?" Here were the knocks on HRC ... The piece says she "never walked a picket line for our union" and that she "changes her position on immigration depending on what audience she is speaking to." It also says her campaign "defends a lawsuit to block our right to vote on Saturday in the casinos."
-- Printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other, another piece is headlined, "Our right to vote? 'I just don't know,' says Hillary Clinton"
-- A third yellow flyer is headlined: "Hillary Clinton supporters file more court documents to stop voting by culinary workers" ... "A real leader fights for us, and stands up for our right to vote," it reads. "Senator Barack Obama is defending our right to vote. As a civil rights lawyer, he fought for voting rights. As an organizer, he registered workers to vote."
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
Posted at 06:33 PM
Comments
Why are you having difficulty seeing how a union with 60 thousand members could have a huge impact on a primary with tiny turnout?
Bart | 01.18.08 11:24 PM
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I find the story everyone is missing is that the left suddenly has no problem with using the courts to attempt to control the outcome of an election. Wasn't this the very thing that the left went bonkers about when in 2002 George Bush "stole" the election by going to the courts? (I know Al went there first)
Don L | 01.19.08 09:46 AM
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Here we go again with the illegal, may I remind you, ILLEGAL immigrants wanting to vote. Demanding their "right" to vote. Time for a round-up and herd these illegals into cattle trucks and two-tier hog trucks and get them out of here. Yeah, that makes me a racist. Sure. If they had a little respect for our laws and did things the proper way, there wouldn't be this backlash against them. After being in our country all these years and seeing how things could/should be, why don't they go back home and fix their own countries?
cjs1943 | 01.19.08 11:17 AM
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Humans beings invented the word "ILLEGAL" . It's another living being "illegal". We been conditioned to believe that
bird1 | 04.03.08 11:26 AM
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