Thread: Vegas Casino Employees to Caucus..No ID Except Proof of Empl

NOT ONE WORD ABOUT THE FACT THAT MOST OF THESE UNSKILLED WORKERS ARE ILLEGAL! ONLY I.D. REQUIRED IS PROOF OF EMPLOYMENT...NOT PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP!

In Vegas, Politics Comes to The Strip
Caucus Sites in Casinos Become A Flash Point

By Paul Kane and Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 13, 2008; A01



LAS VEGAS -- Next Saturday, gamblers at the Bellagio, the opulent Las Vegas casino immortalized in the George Clooney blockbuster "Ocean's Eleven," will be treated to an unusual sight.

Just before noon, the hotel's dishwashers, cocktail waitresses, porters and bellhops will go on break and gather in a 30,000-square-foot ballroom to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama or maybe John Edwards to be the Democratic nominee for president.

A similar scene will play out in eight other casinos on or near Las Vegas's Strip as Democrats caucus in Nevada, the next stop in the party's fiercely competitive presidential race. There will be more than 1,700 caucus precincts across Nevada, but estimates are that the votes cast in the casinos could be more than 10 percent of the statewide total. Many of them will be cast by Latinos, the first time in the 2008 presidential race when that ethnic group will play a significant role.

Democratic officials, working with national party leaders, came up with the idea of caucusing in the casinos for the first time to increase participation in a town that doesn't know the meaning of a 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday workweek.

Under rules set by the Nevada Democratic Party, only casinos that have been organized by the most powerful labor group in Las Vegas, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, were selected as caucus sites.

The unusual venue has set the scene for a different confrontation between Obama and Clinton, the two front-runners, than occurred in Iowa or New Hampshire.

In New Hampshire, Clinton fared best among working-class and middle-class voters, while Obama did better with higher-income voters and in college towns -- a demographic that Clinton at one point mocked as people who "don't need a president."

But in Las Vegas, Clinton, a senator from New York, is supported by many hotel and casino executives, while Obama has the backing of two key unions -- the Nevada chapter of the Service Employees International Union and the culinary workers, which announced its endorsement Wednesday after fierce lobbying from all three Democrats.

"Not only am I among friends, I am also among the best of the labor movement in this country," Obama, a senator from Illinois, said in a speech Friday night at the union's hall on the north end of town.

The same day, another union -- the Nevada State Education Association -- contended that Obama and the culinary workers are altogether too friendly, and asked a federal court to shut down the casino caucus sites because, the association said, they give preferential treatment to culinary union members.

State Democratic officials, who had been expecting the suit, said they had worked with each presidential campaign since last spring to craft the process, including the casino precincts, to drum up the largest turnout possible.

"The time for comment or complaint has passed," the state party said in a statement after the suit was filed by the teachers' union and several individuals. The union, which has not endorsed a candidate, has some leaders who individually support Clinton. It is using a law firm with at least one prominent lawyer who backs Clinton. (Another teachers' union, the American Federation of Teachers, has endorsed Clinton and is airing radio ads in Nevada on her behalf.)

Culinary union officials dismiss the complaints as sour grapes from Clinton allies. "It's strange it's coming after our endorsement," D. Taylor, the secretary-treasurer, said of the suit.

Minutes from the meeting last March when the state Democratic committee approved the caucus process show that several of the parties to the suit were there and approved of the process.

Clinton raised questions about the caucus process when she campaigned here Thursday. Repeating an argument she made after she lost the Iowa caucuses, she said caucuses provide only a "limited period of time" for participation, as opposed to day-long primaries. "People who work during that [caucus] time, they're disenfranchised," she told reporters.

State party officials counter that the sites in the casinos are specifically designed to meet the objections raised by Clinton and to allow more people to participate in the notoriously cumbersome caucus process.

The casino caucuses are open to any shift worker, including cab drivers and employees at nonunion casinos, who is on duty midday Saturday within a 2 1/2 mile radius of the nine sites. They must present identification showing that they work on or near Las Vegas Boulevard, the Strip's official name. However, the logistical reality of Las Vegas -- where mega-casinos can be half a mile long and the Strip is clogged with cabs hustling gamblers around town -- is that it will be very difficult for workers in nonunion casinos to take the time to walk or drive to the caucus sites.

Culinary officials have been prepping their union's members on caucus rules -- the doors close promptly at noon, and no late attendance, for example -- at meetings for months. Although their endorsement of Obama came late, they predict a near-united front for him, adhering to the labor movement's notion that division weakens a union's hand, whether in contract bargaining or politics.

"We believe that everyone has the ability to choose on their own, but normally we all try to stick together," said Jennifer Grote, 44, who works in food service at the Paris hotel-casino and will serve as a caucus captain on Election Day.

"You cannot divide union workers," added Leain Vashon, a bell captain at the Paris.

Any members who want to oppose their leadership and support another candidate will have to do so in front of their co-workers, wearing their casino-issued work clothes identifying themselves as members of the union.

At the Bellagio, executives estimate that between 4,000 and 5,000 employees will be working at caucus time. While they have been accommodating so far, executives say they cannot possibly let every worker take more than an hour-long break on Martin Luther King Day weekend, which will be extra busy.

"It's not perfect for us. We've got a business to maintain," said Gordon Absher, spokesman for MGM Mirage, which owns the Bellagio and three other casinos hosting caucuses.

Despite Obama's organizational advantage, Clinton has hardly given up in Nevada. After touring a Latino neighborhood that is home to many culinary workers Thursday, she returned here yesterday with former housing secretary Henry Cisneros in an effort to peel away Latino votes.

With Obama getting the support of the dishwashers and housekeepers, Clinton has the backing of such political players as former governor Bob Miller, former Las Vegas mayor Jan Jones, and Rory Reid, son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (who has stayed neutral in the race).

Her campaign convened a conference call with casino executives Friday to attack Obama for his opposition to expanding casino gambling in Illinois while he was in the legislature there. They said it was hypocritical of him to accept the endorsement of the hotel and casino workers while having previously criticized the industry on which their livelihoods depend.

Taylor, the culinary union leader, pointed to Clinton's prominent backers as evidence that "the entire Democratic power structure" supports her, saying that makes Obama the underdog.

The competitive nature of the fight is exactly what Nevada Democrats hoped for when they used Harry Reid's clout to give the state an early place in the primary process. The state party bills the contest as "the test in the West" -- the first battle in the western half of the nation.

"Nevada is right in the eye of the storm, and it's wonderful," Harry Reid said in an interview last week.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 34_pf.html

Its out and out pandering

The legal , voting hispanic population in Vegas is 15%

and yet Hillary has had 7 events , all catering to the huge
illegal population in Vegas

I know people who's High School grad kids can't even be hired in the Casinos (entry leval jobs) because they don't speak Spanish.....and this is America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where is ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

I know people who's High School grad kids can't even be hired in the Casinos (entry leval jobs) because they don't speak Spanish.....and this is America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where is ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not just casinos , a ton of jobs in Vegas REQUIRE that you are
bilingual

Any members who want to oppose their leadership and support another candidate will have to do so in front of their co-workers, wearing their casino-issued work clothes identifying themselves as members of the union






Wait just one blasted second here..........this doesn't even sound right.

To me it sounds like this is almost a type of.....oh, what is the word I'm looking for here, darn it ..........intimidation, I guess.




Definition of intimidate/intimidation:

The attempt to prevent an unwanted action by individuals, groups, or governments by the use of threats or by other means.
www.globalsecurity.org/military/library ... 0020gl.htm

To discourage, inhibit, or frighten.
www.state.mi.us/msp/cjic/ucr/ucr_m.htm

bullying: the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something
the feeling of discouragement in the face of someone's superior fame or wealth or status etc.
the feeling of being intimidated; being made to feel afraid or timid
determent: a communication that makes you afraid to try something



In other words, employees are expected to, across-the-board.....vote for the candidate the Union wants and if they don't they run the risk of disapproval, ostracism, etc. from fellow employees, superiors, and union organizers.......am I reading that correctly?

What happened to the right to vote for the candidate of your choice and confidentiality of that vote?

Quite frankly, what is planned here sounds like some 3rd World election tactic, not how things are done in this country.

Also, I really hope someone looks into this after it's done with. The potential for voter fraud in this situation is off the charts.

Your pretty much correct on all counts

The amount of voter fraud and illegals voting out west here
will be through the roof

Keep in mind these unions are overwhelmingly hispanic and largely made up of illegals

The legal Hispanic vote is 15% , no telling what the illegal vote number is

Any of them can get an absentee ballot and vote

Hard to believe they are ignoring middle class Ameicans almost completely to try and receive 15 per cent of the vote from people who are more than likely illegal....They are basically saying to middle America you are not important to us at all, screw your jobs we don't care what is happening to you. They are pandering pieces of crap and I hope this wakes Americans up!!

ICE could literally hit the JACKPOT of illegal workers if they showed up at these fraudulent caucuses! I believe that committing voter fraud would be considered a crime worthy of deportation, at the very least, since it is destorying the democratic process!!!

What we have here is a bunch of thoroughly CORRUPT politicians who are aiding and abetting illegals to vote!!! HOW CAN THIS STAND???? WHERE IS ICE, THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, THE SECRETARY OF STATE...oh, silly me...I forgot...they are ALL complicit!

Maybe we need to get a few people to hang out there wearing ICE baseball caps.

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

Hard to believe they are ignoring middle class Ameicans almost completely to try and receive 15 per cent of the vote from people who are more than likely illegal....They are basically saying to middle America you are not important to us at all, screw your jobs we don't care what is happening to you. They are pandering pieces of crap and I hope this wakes Americans up!!

It just amazes me that they have concentrated their visits
on the north east here in Vegas and pretty much ignored the
rest of the town ,

I really think its going to come back and bite Hillary hard here ,
I do hope they catch some of the fraud that will go on in this town
also