Clinton Crime Family Thugs Try to Steal Union Support From Buckwheat in NV!

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Obama,_Hillary_in_Bitter_/2008/01/14/64288.html

Obama, Hillary in Bitter Nevada Union Fight

Monday, January 14, 2008

A key back-room battle in the contest to nominate a Democratic presidential

candidate is raging far from the gaze of TV cameras in places like the

workers' cafeteria of the Mirage Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

There, activists like Amelia Moreland are trying to translate an endorsement

from the state's most powerful union into support for Illinois Sen. Barack

Obama in the Nevada caucus next Saturday. Labor unions are especially

crucial in the Democratic presidential race for their ability to organize

and mobilize voters and get them to the polls.

Both Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton lobbied hard to for the

endorsement of the Culinary Union which has 60,000 members. Obama won and

his supporters now are trying to turn it into actual votes to balance

Clinton's support from most of the rest of the state's Democratic

establishment.

"We have to convince these people; it is tough," Moreland said, standing

among chefs in white hats and cocktail waitresses in skimpy dresses. "If it

is 20 percent (support) now, next Saturday it will be 80 percent."

Much of the politicking is in Spanish -- nearly half the union membership is

Hispanic -- and name tags at the Mirage show birthplaces like Mexico,

Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

The vast underbelly beneath a Las Vegas hotel that houses cleaning, food and

security operations is usually off limits to outsiders, but MGM Mirage

managers agreed to allow a reporter to visit this weekend.

ECONOMIC MACHINE

Las Vegas has been a powerful economic machine, helping turn Nevada into one

of the fastest-growing states in the country. Some 5,800 people are employed

at the Mirage alone.

If large numbers of cleaning people, cooks, bartenders and others show up

and support the union's choice, Obama could win because overall turnout is

likely to be only in the tens of thousands in the state of 2.5 million.

This year is the first time Nevada is hosting a caucus. The process is

complicated and party members stand for hours in groups to show support for

favored candidates rather than voting in a secret ballot.

People usually vote near their homes, but the Democratic Party has agreed to

set up caucus sites at nine Las Vegas Strip hotels so that those working can

vote.

The plan has sparked a lawsuit from a teacher's union, which alleges it

offers an unfair exception. Republicans are not offering casino hotel

caucuses.

This weekend, Culinary Union president Geoconda Arguello Kline campaigned

for Obama in the cafeteria. "Hillary Clinton is a good person, no?" Juan

Candela asked in Spanish.

Kline agreed, but said Obama would be better for the union. Candela

ultimately said he would back his union's choice.

Clinton's supporters are also making a major push. She has twice visited Las

Vegas in recent days and is making big efforts in Hispanic neighborhoods.

"We have built a ground organization unlike any other," said Ruben Kihuen, a

legislator who has hosted Clinton in Hispanic areas.

A win in Nevada could boost a candidate leading up to the biggest day of

primary voting, February 5, when California, New York and 20 other states

make their choice.