quote:
Originally posted by RecycleMichael
That is an overstatement of Hillary's intent.
They have never allowed caucuses inside of casinos before. After Obama got the endorsement of the culinary union, they requested permission to have them there.
Hillary protested, but lost out.
I am not a big Hillary supporter (unless she is the Democratic nominee), but having caucuses in casinos does seem odd. Politics is a gamble, but casinos are so separate from reality that there could be problems with what happens in them, real or perceived.
Actually, the campaigns had already agreed on the caucus plan, it was who would get the union endorsement that wasn't clear. After Obama got the endorsement, the Clinton supporters sued:
(from WSJ blog)
Judge Upholds Nevada’s Casino Caucuses
June Kronholz reports from Las Vegas on the presidential race.
A federal judge’s ruling that Nevada Democrats can hold nine caucuses in Las Vegas Strip casinos Saturday is seen as a boost to Sen. Barack Obama, and a PR blooper for Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Ruling from the bench after a two-hour hearing, Judge James Mahan said the state’s Democrats “have a First Amendment right to association, to assemble and to set their own rules.”
The ruling came after the state teacher’s union attempted to stop the casino caucuses, arguing that workers in other parts of the state wouldn’t have the same opportunity to caucus on the job. It also argued that the nine Las Vegas caucuses would send up to 10 times as many delegates to the county convention — the next level in a complicated nomination process — as a neighborhood caucus that attracts the same number of participants.
The decision is seen as good news for Obama, who won the endorsement of the Culinary Workers Union, which represents many of the hotel workers on the Strip, and they’re expected to account for most of the casino-caucus participants. Just days after that endorsement, the teachers union filed the suit.
A new poll by the Reno Gazette Journal shows the three Democrats, Clinton, Obama and John Edwards, in a dead heat here. Obama led the poll with 32% to 30% for Clinton and 27% for Edwards. Popularity counts less in a caucus than in a primary, though, and what will decide the outcome is how successful the campaigns are at turning out their supporters.
That magnifies the importance of the endorsement of the Culinary Workers, who are an organizing force here with 60,000 members in Las Vegas.
Clinton has largely claimed ignorance of the teachers union suit, but her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was angry at suggestions that her campaign was behind the caucus challenge. The teachers union hasn’t endorsed Clinton, but many of its members support her.
The campaigns had signed-off on the caucus rules last March, and all of them had angled for the Culinary Workers’ endorsement.
President Clinton seemed to endorse the suit today by insisting that the “rules ought to be the same for everybody.” But political observers here see the suit as sour grapes because it was filed it only after the Clinton campaign didn’t receive the Culinary Workers’ support.
