D. Taylor

The Bally's ballroom, site of the 2008 Clark County Democratic ConvetionLas Vegas- “Clown shoes” was how one delegate to the Clark County Democratic Convention described the scene Saturday, echoing the thoughts and words of many in the packed-beyond-overflow ballroom of Bally’s Hotel and Casino.

Trouble started before the convention even began as thousands of people waited in line for hours to be granted entrance to the ballroom.  The capacity of the room was only 5,000, according to a Bally’s spokesperson, but more than 7,400 delegates had been elected from the precinct caucuses last month, not counting alternates.  A fire marshal threatened to shut the event down only minutes after it officially began and when the doors were shut to all comers, hundreds of people still remained outside.

Will work 4 food

The 2008 presidential caucuses are over and the Nevada political community can now return to some normalcy; unless it’s for a fundraiser, don’t expect to see the presidential candidates return anytime soon – though Nevada’s potential competitiveness in the general election will cause competition for our five electoral votes.

Now the focus goes back to state and local politics: Can Democrats beat Bob Beers or Joe Heck and capture control of the State Senate? Might Republicans make substantial gains in key State Assembly races?   Could Jon Porter lose his congressional seat to Rob Daskas? Will Jill Derby, fresh off rave reviews for the state Democratic Party’s performance in attracting 100,000 voters to participate in the caucuses, agree to a rematch against Dean Heller?  Are Nevada politicians as afraid of D. Taylor and Culinary as they were last week? And will Jim Gibbons rebound – as many Governors do after their first year or two in office – and win re-election in 2010?

In a few hours, Nevadans have an historic opportunity to enter the national political spotlight and potentially play a key role in the nomination of the next President of the United States.  Still, in the first caucus that could be truly relevant, there are no guarantees that a huge number of voters will turn out for today’s caucuses.

On the Democratic side, today’s caucus is being viewed as a tie-breaker between Barack Obama, who won Iowa, and Hillary Clinton, the winner in New Hampshire, as they compete for momentum critical February 5 primaries known as Super Tuesday.  The Nevada Caucus is less important for Republicans, who have virtually ignored the Silver State as they keep their eye on South Carolina, which also votes today.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has sent nearly 100 staffers to Nevada to help Hillary Clinton, causing Culinary Workers Local 226 head D. Taylor – since last week a Barack Obama supporter – to complain the AFSCME might be violating some election laws. The Federal Election Commission allows unions to communicate only with their own members on union time, and AFSCME has about 3,000 members in Nevada. It’s hard to believe each staffer is spending their day talking to thirty people.

The Las Vegas Sun has the latest details on the lawsuit over Culinary Worker caucus voting on the Strip.  read more »

The Culinary Workers Local 226 represents more than 60,000 Nevada workers.UNITE HERE, the national union affiliate of Nevada’s largest labor union, the Culinary Workers Local 226, announced its endorsement of Ill. Sen. Barack Obama for president of the United States today. The announcement ends weeks of speculation about which Democratic contender the Culinary Union would back and could represent the boost Obama needs to pull out a win in the Democrats’ third nominating contest Jan. 19.

"Barack Obama began his career organizing working families who were trying to pick up their lives as their industries were leaving them behind. As he entered politics, we knew that he would understand our members and we supported him from the start," said UNITE HERE’s General President Bruce Raynor. "Our organization and our members will do everything in our power to see that he reaches the White House this fall, because we know he will bring working Americans with him."

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor

The Reno Gazette-Journal's Anjeanette Damon is a tremendously talented reporter with great political instincts, but some political insiders think her analysis of the Culinary Local 226 endorsement - that their waiting until early January to endorse "is a significant blow to Nevada's strength in the nominating process" could be dead wrong.

Waiting another few weeks to endorse could actually make Nevada more important to the presidential nomination process and, maybe Local 226 boss D. Taylor can avoid being Gephardted - or face a repeat of the implosion of organized labor in Richard Gephardt's 2004 Iowa campaign.

Damon does get the three possible scenarios right: "One, Culinary could simply cede it, going with the winner of the Iowa Caucus. Two, Culinary could endorse the second or third place candidate in the Iowa Caucus, propel that person to victory in Nevada and claim its stake as a major player in the presidential contest. Three, Culinary could endorse the second or third place candidate in Iowa Caucus, fail to propel that person to victory in Nevada and relinquish much of its credibility with whoever does go on to become president."

No matter what, the culinary workers will have a choice to make after Iowa, but only in the case of Hillary Clinton winning there will Nevada or the union be less important.  If Clinton wins Iowa, she will likely cruise through New Hampshire and Nevada regardless of what the culinary union does.  It won't have made any difference at all if the union had endorsed her before or after Iowa, because Clinton will be riding the "Inevitability Express" and every Democratic player in the country will be jumping on board.

Waiting until after Iowa, Culinary will be much better positioned to play a role in actually selecting the Democratic nominee. An endorsement of Hillary Clinton today would add resources to her campaign -- but no huge publicity boost. The story would be, "Floating on a 24 -point lead in Nevada, Clinton ties up Culinary Union loose end." The union would be an accomplice, not a kingmaker.