Judge allows casino caucuses to proceed

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- The Democratic Party can go ahead with a plan to set up "at-large" precincts for this weekend's Nevada caucuses in nine casinos on the Las Vegas strip, a federal judge ruled Thursday.



The 60,000-member Nevada Culinary Workers Union endorsed Barack Obama last week.

The state teachers union went to court to challenge the plan, arguing that the casino caucus sites Saturday night will give the roughly 200,000 workers on the Las Vegas strip an unfair advantage over other voters who have to work that night.

But U.S. District Judge James Mahan rejected that argument after a Thursday morning hearing.

The lawsuit sparked a battle between the 28,000-member Nevada State Education Association and the state's biggest labor organization, the 60,000-member Nevada Culinary Workers Union, which supports the casino caucuses. The culinary workers endorsed Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in Saturday's contest and accused the teachers union of trying to tilt the race in favor of his leading rival, senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton of New York.

Recent published polls show Clinton and Obama in a statistical dead heat going into the Nevada contest. Saturday's results could give the winner the upper hand going into the first contest in the South, the January 26 primary in South Carolina.

"When you're trying to change the rules a week before that were approved 10 months before, that's just not right, and I think people see through it as just crass politics," D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada Culinary Workers Union, said Wednesday.

Link to entire article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/17/casino.caucuses/?iref=mpstoryview

of the union members in these special caucus locations on the strip.

The culinary workers will not be checked for drivers licenses or proof of citizenship to caucus (vote).All one needs to do is produce his/her union membership card to caucus (vote).

Does that, in turn, mean that illegals among the group will be allowed to vote with what is apparently the protection of the courts and the blessing of the legal citizens in NV?

FWIW: it is believed 50% of the culinary workers are illegal.

Pretty good windfall for Obama.