Las Vegas union may be a player in the 2008 race

LAS VEGAS — They have poured in from across the United States, from Mexico, Russia, Ethiopia. They change sheets in hotels, flip pancakes for 3 a.m. buffets and carry highballs to the blackjack tables. To visitors, they are quickly forgotten.

Suddenly, many political analysts think, these faceless low-wage workers are about to play a pivotal role in selecting the next Democratic nominee for president. The 60,000 maids, waiters and waitresses, cooks and other service workers are members of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 — in Nevada, a state where organized labor still has clout — and likely presidential candidates already are courting them.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC), looking for more diverse voices in choosing the party's next presidential nominee, recently bumped Nevada to the front of its 2008 election calendar; its caucus is scheduled for Jan. 19, between the first contest, in Iowa, and New Hampshire's primary.

To political oddsmakers, there are a number of potential beneficiaries, including the state Democratic Party; Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who lobbied for the change; and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a potential presidential candidate.

Unlike primaries, which typically involve large numbers of voters, caucuses often involve a small slice of the electorate — usually party activists — so much so that they have been criticized as ineffective gauges of public sentiment.

For Nevada Democrats, labor is a leading force in political organization, and Local 226 is far and away the largest and most powerful labor union in Nevada.

In many other pockets of the country, the clout of organized labor has faded with plant closings and outsourcing. But labor has grown increasingly powerful in Nevada, particularly with the rise of Las Vegas' gambling, hotel and tourism industries.

As a result, Nevada boasts the largest percentage in the region of union members among its working population, 13.8 percent, said Pilar Weiss, the union's political director. That is also higher than the national average of 12.5 percent.

Union members vote in large numbers, are active in the Democratic Party and are organized by political supervisors renowned in Nevada for their research capability and their ability to route money into elections, said Jon Ralston, Nevada's leading political commentator.

"We can be a very good ally," D. Taylor, the union's secretary-treasurer, said recently. "And we can be a very bad foe. Working people are going to have a real place at the table."

Potential presidential candidates have begun flocking to Nevada to meet with union members. Those meetings will culminate, late next year, with an endorsement.

With a growing membership — the union is expected to top 70,000 members before the election — and so few others that take part in caucuses, "they can dominate," Ralston said.