Culinary leader: Closing sites on Strip would strike at caucus’ heart

Source: Las Vegas Sun

Nevada’s largest and most politically active union fired back Saturday at an attempt to shut down caucus sites on the Strip intended to allow its workers to caucus Jan. 19, when state Democrats make their choice for a presidential nominee. Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor demanded that Nevada’s Democratic elected officials and the presidential campaigns denounce a lawsuit that would eliminate the nine “at-large” caucus locations designed for shift workers, both union and nonunion. Shutting down the sites, which allow anyone who works within 2 1/2 miles of one to caucus there, would undermine the legitimacy of the caucus, he said.

By Taylor’s logic, the lawsuit could threaten the future of Nevada’s early presidential voting status.

“This is an attempt to wholesale disenfranchise people who are largely women, largely people of color, and people who do the kind of work that makes this town go,” Taylor said. The campaigns and senior Democratic officials “have to condemn this. Anything short of that will clearly be a sign that they obviously think it’s OK to disenfranchise voters.”

The Clinton campaign, which unsuccessfully sought the 60,000-member union’s endorsement, declined to take up Taylor’s offer. “Not for us to decide,” said Rory Reid, Clinton’s state chairman, in an e-mail to the Sun. “We just want the process to be fair.”

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/13/culinary-leader-closing-sites-strip-would-strike-c/

---

Rory Reid, Harry Reid's son. Harry Reid was the one who pushed for the at-large caucus sites. Interesting politics.

the clintonians.

since she is almost certainly going to win.

I hope to god it backfires, that the voters are smarter than the clintons seem to think they are.

. I am not a member of any union ...
But I am in solidarity with my fellow cooks. It almost becomes a classist diss. The teachers, recognized middle class (although they don't make THAT much more)who get saturdays off are denying these other union members, workers at shift positions a chance to vote. I've joked for years to my fellow restaurant workers that we are considered to be a social step above 'carnies'. We're just cleaner and slightly better looking as far as middle america goes. These teachers are not just denying 'immigrants' the right to vote, they are denying their own students, the cooks that graduated from the local HS and Cooking schools, the waitstaff who are currently students at local colleges who can't even take off a day when sick, fugittabout voting, and various other staff who could otherwise not participate. Their neighbors, their students...or the parents of students. And it cuts along class lines, with a prejudice perhaps, that because we have service jobs that we are somehow dumber or less informed, on edit: or certainly more manipulable. Some of the smartest people I ever met were fellow employees. Many had advanced degrees. English, history, etc. To write us off is folly. Another thing that bugs me is that if you have ever been to Nevada you would realize that many of these casinos are central to a small sprawl of restaurants, hotels and other services with all their myriad employees. It's not just the casino people, it's the hub for the workers of the area.

This is really bothering me. How dare anybody manipulate a campaign that means so much for whatever perceived gain.

Thanks Ursi for keeping us posted on this.