Campaigning here, Clinton goes over Culinary’s head

[MethuenProgressive]

Source: Las Vegas Sun

Just beneath the smiles and the hugs and the flash of cameras, Sen. Hillary Clinton played in-your-face politics in a visit to Las Vegas on Thursday. A day after the 60,000-member Culinary Union endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president, Clinton walked a northeast Las Vegas neighborhood heavy with Culinary workers and won the support of several. Her campaign’s message: The endorsement means nothing and Culinary members should follow their conscience and not the order of union Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor. It was a political kick in the shins to Obama and the union, all delivered with the New York senator’s trademark wide grin.

Marhayra Bermudez, a Culinary member who works in the kitchen at Bally’s, said she’s ignoring the Obama endorsement and backing Clinton. Many of her co-workers are doing the same, she said. Clinton stopped at the home of Gilberto and Elizabeth Santana and their two young children. Elizabeth Santana is a housekeeper at Harrah’s who cleans 16 rooms during every eight-hour shift. She’s supporting the family because her husband was injured on the job and can’t work.

The event gave Clinton some pitch-perfect TV moments. Sitting on the Santana couch, looking concerned as Gilberto Santana explained the family’s financial difficulties, Clinton said, “If we don’t take care of our children, we don’t care of our future.” She was once on the board of directors for the Children’s Defense Fund. Clinton’s theme for the day, which she adroitly returned to repeatedly, was the economy and the foreclosure crisis that is causing significant hardship across the country, but especially in Las Vegas.

At a roundtable discussion at Lindo Michoacan, a popular Mexican restaurant, Clinton listened to the stories of local residents either hit by the crisis or trying to do something about it, and she laid out her agenda on the issue: Clinton is calling for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a five-year mortgage rate freeze, both dependent on the voluntary cooperation of lenders. In the past, she has said if the financial industry opposed her measures, she would consider legislation to make the steps mandatory including giving legal protection to lenders that fear being sued by investors for renegotiating mortgages. Clinton supports a fund, estimated at $5 billion, to help existing state foreclosure programs.



Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/11/campaigning-here-clinton-goes-over-culinarys-head/

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Nice, positive story.

[BOSSHOG]

1. I don't understand

If a group endorses a candidate they are off limits to other candidates? That seems to be the "message" of this story.

[acmavm]

2. Apparently the individual has to give up his right to chose who

he wants to win the nomination if an organization they belong to supports someone else.

Democracy in action.

:sarcasm:

[MethuenProgressive]

4. The group didn't endorse Obama - just the group's leaders have.

Not every one follows the leader, thank goodness.

[LiberalFighter]

12. The officers endorse on behalf of all members.

But there isn't a requirement that the members support the endorsed candidate.

The members are free to campaign for and contribute to whoever they wish.

[jasmine621]

3. Polls and media pundits don't vote. People do. nt

[rodeodance]

9. well said

[xultar]

5. RECOUNT!!!

[Missy M]

6. Good for Hillary to keep campaigning and good for....

people to vote their own choice.

[LostinVA]

7. I've been impressed -- and heartened -- how well HRC's going with blue collar women

[Frances]

10. There was data on how women voted in

Iowa and in New Hampshire.

Most Iowa women voted Obama while most New Hampshire women voted Hillary.

Do you think there may be a gender gap in the African American vote?

[MethuenProgressive]

8. A few sentences picked from this story have been posted on DU and spun into a smear attempt.

DU never changes... :eyes:

[9119495]

11. It is a bit rediculous.

I would expect Obama and Edwards to do the same thing...It is called a CAMPAIGN.

Any candidate that let every member of a union go just because of a public endorsement is a dumb candidate.

[LiberalFighter]

13. I'm not supporting the endorsed gubernatorial candidate of our regional leader.

At least nationally they made a better decision not to endorse a presidential candidate at this time.

[9119495]

14. And I would expect my NEA would endorse Clinton, but I am

backing Obama no matter what. I don't even know why endorsements by unions are considered a big deal. It seems like so many are frustrated by their union leadership an endorsement could actually be counter-productive.

[LiberalFighter]

15. It is the process that they used to endorse here

It did not even involve local union leaders. It was decided by a former regional leader who doesn't even live in the area.