Despite reports that Culinary Workers Local 226 will endorse Barack Obama for president tomorrow morning (see Tim Russert’s unattributed pronouncement on the Today Show this morning), the 60,000-strong union of casino and hotel workers is still undecided.
In fact, no vote has taken place yet. That’s planned for 11 pm EST tonight when the executive committee of the union’s international parent Unite Here convenes a conference call to discuss the decision — and presumably the results of the New Hampshire primary, according to union spokeswoman Amanda Cooper.
The committee comprises 12 members, including co-presidents Bruce Raynor and John Wilhelm, who ran the Culinary Union in Las Vegas before taking his post in the international. Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor is one of 10 executive vice presidents on the committee.
The endorsement, if one is decided, will be announced tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. at the Culinary Union’s headquarters here.
Interesting bit of hedging on the part of Unite Here: “I can’t guarantee you that they will make a decision today,” Cooper said. “I can’t predict who they will endorse or if they’ll endorse. We’ve arranged to make this announcement tomorrow to satisfy the intense curiosity.”
Raynor has been publicly advocating for John Edwards for months now, and there are signals that the Culinary Union was far from pleased with the international’s decision to hold off until New Hampshire, delivering the news without the usual fanfare.
That said, it’s unlikely the union wouldn’t decide on an endorsement. After nearly an entire year of carefully cultivating an image of itself as kingmaker of the Nevada caucus, the Culinary’s reputation is on the line.
On the ground, Clinton’s Nevada folks are trying to keep their chins up.
“We expect to compete in Nevada,” said Hilarie Grey, Clinton’s Nevada
spokeswoman. “We are full speed ahead in Nevada.”
Like Obama and Edwards, no word yet on when Clinton will visit, which would
be a major sign she plans to make a stand here.
But it doesn’t appear any of the candidates will be taking midnight flights
here as they did to New Hampshire after Iowa, as Anjeanette Damon reports at
her Inside Nevada Politics blog.
Tom Edsaall, former Washington Post reporter, writes on the Huffington Post that Clinton may concede Nevada and South Carolina.
Reports are now conflicting, with the AP and other published reports talking about Clinton treating Nevada like a firewall.
“Manchester, N.H. — A panicked and cash-short Clinton campaign is seriously considering giving up on the Nevada caucuses and on the South Carolina primary in order to regroup and to save resources for the massive 19-state mega-primary on February 5.
“At the same time, some top independent expenditure groups supporting Clinton have been exploring the creation of an anti-Obama “527 committee” that would take unlimited contributions from a few of Clinton’s super-rich backers and from a handful of unions to finance television ads and direct mail designed to tarnish the Illinois Senator’s image.”
The campaign is obviously in total chaos if contradictory and damaging leaks like this are happening.
The rule in politics generally is, if you want to destroy someone, go ahead, but don’t talk about it.
Can the presidential endorsement of the Culinary Union Local 226 make or break the Democratic contenders, at least in Nevada?
[Read more →]
CONCORD, N.H. — Downtown at the state capital. The Clinton bus just rolled through. The sky is clear and the air has reached 50 degrees. Expect big turnout, which is what the campaigns are reporting thus far.
Larry David was at an Obama event on the campus of Dartmouth College today, and was a meanie to Politico’s Ben Smith. Larry David is the star/creator of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and co-creator of “Seinfeld.”
What’s funny is that David’s agent, Ari Emanuel, waved Smith away and said no press.
Ari Emanuel, the basis for Jeremy Piven’s character in HBO’s “Entourage,” is the brother of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago congressman and political guru who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (The D-Trip in political lingo) in 2006, helping Dems win the majority. Plus, Emanuel worked on the 1992 Clinton campaign and is the basis for the Josh character on “The West Wing,” if I’m not mistaken. Rahm Emanuel hasn’t endorsed. (You can see why an endorsement would be all but impossible for him given that he’s from Chicago, and thus ought to be backing Obama, but worked for Clinton.)
Anyway, the small worlds of Hollywood and Hollywood-for-ugly-people, Washington, D.C.
Here’s some funny stuff from the Dartmouth student paper about Larry David campaigning for Obama in a couple dorms:
“Haven’t we had enough with Bushes and Clintons and Bushes,” David said. “The country needs a shower, a good, long, hot shower. That’s what Obama is, a hot shower. So fresh you can smell him, delicious.”
David led the discussion as a question and answer session, addressing student questions ranging from what candidate “Curb Your Enthusiasm” character Leon supported to what mistakes Obama should avoid in his campaign.
“He needs to avoid saying [expletive] in his speech and sexual come-ons to woman around him,” David said. “He also needs to avoid going “I dunno if I can do this, I’m scared.” Other than that, it’ll be alright.”
CONCORD, H.H. — As I write this, the polls here opening in just a few hours, the signs point to Sen. Clinton treating Nevada like her ultimate firewall. If that’s the case, we can expect 10 days of tough campaigning back home, heavy on the negatives from the Clinton camp. And the Obama team will respond.
The Clinton campaign will attack Obama’s record by pointing out some flip flopping and portray him as just another politician. Will it work? Well, even a sliver of something can be used for an effective negative attack. But from here it looks like they’re struggling to come up with anything effective.
They seem to be going to the left-leaning press to float some possibilities. A liberal magazine writer told me the “oppo research” he’s been shown is thin, essentially unusable. (”Oppo research” is the innocuous term used in politics to mean the dirt you dig up on your opponent.)
I asked this writer if maybe they didn’t hire the right people or didn’t put resources into the project. He looked at me and laughed — the Clintons do this stuff well, so the idea that they didn’t hire the right oppo research team was a naive question.
(This is not to say Obama is invincible or wouldn’t get flayed in a general election campaign. But it’s harder for Clinton because it can be more difficult to attack someone who’s with you ideologically. So, for instance, Clinton can’t attack him over tax increases, because she’s right there with him.)
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has been on the receiving end of the same thin gruel oppo research, apparently. He began his career as a neo-liberal journalist, meaning very friendly to Clinton’s New Democrat message, and he knows a lot of people in Washington. Now he runs a liberal blog with a team of investigative reporters.
Money line: “Through the day I got pitched, formally and informally, by various Clintonites on Obama stories, most of which were almost embarrassing to hear. I don’t use these words and phrases lightly or indiscriminately. I find it difficult to conceive of how unprepared her team was for this not-that-hard-to-predict turn of events.”
Re-reading it now, I noticed a key phrase: “Most of which….”
The Washington Post reports Clinton’s advisers believe their first lifeline is Nevada, where pre-Iowa and pre-New Hampshire polls showed her with a big lead. But if Obama wins in New Hampshire, he will have the inside track on an endorsement from the Culinary Workers Union, which could play a significant role in a caucus process that is brand new to voters in the state.
SALEM — During a Clinton rally here, a couple goofballs stood up during her speech and started yelling, “Iron my shirt!” They had yellow signs that said the same.
They were dragged away.
Clinton said “Sexism rears its ugly head,” and referenced the glass ceiling. She got her only standing-o of the night. She later made a joke about anyone wanting to iron their own shirts who needed a lesson in ironing could stick around.
It was an odd moment because my guess is that they were sort of pranksters, like Borat, not sexists.
The Daily News caught up to them.
Iron my shirt was apparently a sexist rallying cry at one time.
Obama was heckled by anti-abortion protesters. He hailed America’s history of civil disobediance like the kind they were practicing and congratulated them for being organized enough to pull it off.
Overheard at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s huge rally in Manchester.
A national magazine journalist to a Clinton heavy: “Yeah, it’ll eventually flip around, because we need a new narrative.”
This means Obama will start getting a little bad press soon enough, and then they’ll pile on. But will it be soon enough for Clinton?
CONCORD, N.H. — Romney is surging the past 36 hours, according to some polls, and The Atlantic’s Mark Ambinder. He reports 800 turning out in Bedford, after a long day of events.
The polls have Romney and McCain within the margin of error. I had a soda with a reporter from a conservative publication who told me McCain aides have grown nervous.
He also noted that if McCain loses, he’s out because New Hampshire was deemed his home turf. When he drops out, the entire Republican field is in complete chaos. If McCain wins, he’s probably the frontrunner, but it’s a tough road ahead.
If Romney loses, he probably hangs around.
Either way, there’s some chance Romney comes to Nevada. He needs wins, and he could get one in Nevada.
South Carolina is now going the way of Huckabee. Read this piece in Harper’s, which is about the vicious political culture there, and the money the frontrunners spent to win the state, which is usually a proving ground for Republican candidates. (The focus is Romney, but it’s really about South Carolina.)
Funny after all that, Huckabee, with no money and no backing, is cruising.
But a McCain adviser told me Sunday he expects the 2000 presidential candidate to go to South Carolina after a New Hampshire victory, because he’s got some scores to settle. Remember, it was in South Carolina in 2000 when despicable rumors were spread that McCain has an African-American illegitimate child.
