Glen Arnato

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.