http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-unions13jan13,1,1083216.story?ctrack=3&cset=trueA tight Clinton-Obama contest has raised the costs and stakes for organized labor. And no place higher than in Nevada.
By Tom Hamburger and Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
January 13, 2008
LAS VEGAS -- The tight race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has opened surprisingly deep and bitter divisions in the ranks of organized labor, as rival union leaders fly planeloads of last-minute volunteers into key states, accuse each other of trying to disenfranchise members, and even launch open attacks on rival Democratic candidates.
In Nevada, which holds its caucuses Saturday, unions backing Clinton are crying foul because some caucuses will be in casinos and hotels where a pro-Obama union's members predominate -- helping that union's members and potentially discouraging others.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
A ROUND FOR HER: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton holds up the boxing gloves AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee gave her along with the government workers union’s endorsement.
Meanwhile, inside the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed the New York senator and is leading the charge for her in Nevada, several officers are protesting the union's decision to run negative ads against the Illinois senator.
A TREAT FOR HIM: Sen. Barack Obama makes a campaign appearance in Las Vegas before the Culinary Workers of America. The 60,000-member hotel, casino and service workers union is supporting his candidacy. More than 13% of Nevada’s workers belong to unions.
(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)
January 11, 2008
"This race has taken on more intensity than we have seen in the past," said Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director and a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns. Other union leaders lament the vitriolic conflicts they say are developing between unions and worry that the effects could linger into the November campaign.
Organized labor is probably the single-most important part of the Democratic Party's election machinery, providing thousand of campaign workers and millions of dollars for sophisticated get-out-the-vote efforts and others. Though unions have divided over presidential candidates in the past, labor insiders say the closeness of the Clinton-Obama race has made this year's divisions unusually bitter.
It has also made the process much more expensive and thus raised the stakes for union leaders and their members.
FULL story at link.