Columnist Jon Ralston: Up the creek with the Culinary

Sunday, April 9, 2000 | 10:37 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Gondolier Numero Uno Sheldon Adelson has been up the political canal without a paddle for some time. Having brandished his oar to poke holes in his own gondola, the Venetian's top doge has found few politicians willing to go for a ride.

The Culinary Union, employing the kinds of techniques that win friends and scare enemies, has tried everything to give Adelson that sinking feeling. Union leaders, who want to organize the property, have employed their usual combination of Wall Street whispering and guerrilla warfare to make their point. During the last few months they have pressured groups not to hold events at the Venetian, including a temple's fete for Mayor Oscar Goodman and a Clark County Bar Association fund-raiser.

The attempt to kill the latter event, which included a missive two weeks ago to politicians urging them not to attend the bar event, recently prompted a response from Adelson lieutenant Bill Weidner, the president of the resort's parent company.

The letter was sent to elected officials along with recent news articles about the company's improving financial performance and a health benefits brochure. Weidner's epistle decries a "negative campaign of deceptive propaganda currently being emanated (sic) by the Culinary union."

And, he continues, "Rather than sinking to their level, we'd like to take this opportunity to briefly review for you The Venetian's bright financial outlook, while discussing in more detail the tremendous positive work environment The Venetian is already providing its workforce."

Weidner dedicates the rest of the three-page letter to describe, using employee survey results, how happy the property's "Team Members" are and how the hotel offers "superior pay and benefits," including the Strip's first on-site child care facility, thus making bargaining agents such as the Culinary superfluous. Weidner also asks politicians to withhold judgment as they continue to receive Culinary missives "filled with mistruths about The Venetian designed to intimidate you from associating with our property."

Culinary strategists will continue to needle Adelson at every turn and influence elected officials as they do what they do best: Try to wait out what will be a protracted battle, just as it was with the MGM and the Frontier. Staying power and political clout the Culinary has. And plenty of money, through those union dues Adelson would love to restrict, to carry out the anti-Adelson campaign.

The Culinary folks know what most insiders do: Just as the Venetian has yet to show a profit, so, too, has Adelson amassed much political capital in the bank. In fact, since he helped elect Lance Malone to the Clark County Commission in 1996, Adelson has been getting little bang for his bucks. Remember, in 1998 he endured the paycheck property disaster, where he went against the Republican political establishment and the presumptive governor, Kenny Guinn.

Then, after paycheck protection vanished, thanks partly to Guinn, Adelson concentrated on spending $2 million to try to defeat three Democratic County Commission contenders, turning a trio of potentially competitive races into blowouts for the people he was trying to defeat.

In so doing, Adelson lost the quality most needed to be an effective political player: the ability to elicit fear. He'll need to win something again to make the political system take notice -- and politicians will have to be willing to let him help. That's what Weidner's letter is all about, trying to tell the political elite: We're not so bad.

At least in the short term, the best Adelson can hope for is to be grudgingly accepted. He'll never be embraced by Democrats and some Republicans. But if he can achieve not being seen as forever taking on water -- financially and politically -- Adelson hopes he will be able to take a few pols for a ride.