Culinary’s maximum effort needed by Titus

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

Union backing must come with enthusiastic help

Last spring and early summer - maybe the darkest days of Dina Titus' campaign for governor - the Culinary Union conspicuously sat on its hands during the Democratic primary.

Nevada political observers speculated that union Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor, known as a shrewd player, was afraid to back a loser, which would weaken the union's hand during the 2007 legislative session.

The Culinary endorsed Titus on Wednesday. Democrats called it a big victory for Titus, although it's not clear how much the union can or will do for her.

"This is huge because it means they think she can win, and by endorsing her they've just increased her chances of winning," said Dan Hart, who ran the campaign of Titus' primary challenger, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson.

The question, however, is what Culinary will actually do for Titus. With its 60,000 members and potent political organization, the union no doubt will be of benefit in Southern Nevada.

But some observers, who refused to be named because they fear angering Culinary or Titus, said it is still an open question whether the union would go all-out to back Titus. Will they attack her opponent, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, with the same relentless force as they have Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald in her re-election bid?

Steve Wark, a Republican operative, downplayed Culinary's effectiveness in a statewide race: "They're most effective when they have a laserlike focus in a small geographic area, and a county commission district is about as big as it gets," Wark said.

Gibbons, meanwhile, was gracious: "If we are successful in November, I look forward to working hand-in-hand with them (union members) and their leadership to see that Nevada continues to maintain its economic strength and prosperity in the years ahead," he said in a statement.

In the spring, it wasn't out of the question that Culinary would stay out of the race. There was even a chance that the union, which backed Republican incumbent Gov. Kenny Guinn in 2002, could back another Republican, Gibbons.

Since then, however, Titus pummeled her Democratic primary opponent, Gibson, just as the political environment for Democrats in Nevada, while never all that friendly, is looking far less hostile.

For Titus, the Culinary endorsement is a political victory, but one she'll have to string together with several others to overcome enormous financial disadvantages and an apparent deficit in the polls.

The Culinary is known for a savvy and hardworking political operation that can deliver voters to the polls and work precincts hard.

"This is a field operation unto itself," Titus said in an interview after a meeting and rally at Cashman Center, where she was mobbed by autograph-seekers.

Pilar Weiss, the Culinary's political director, said the endorsement would mean get-out-the-vote efforts, and the union's 60,000 families reaching out to friends and neighbors. At the moment, however, the union has no plans to spend money on a direct-mail campaign to reach beyond its own members, she said.

Weiss said the union backed Titus because she has long been a supporter of labor during her time in the Legislature, and because they have more confidence in her plan to improve Nevada education.

She added that Gibbons made a fatal mistake by supporting a federal minimum wage law this summer that would have wiped out a Nevada provision that guarantees the minimum wage even to those who earn tips. Unlike Nevada, in most states, workers can be paid as little as $2.13 an hour if their average tips bring them to the current $5.15 minimum wage.

Weiss said the union's many tip-earners would have been hit hard by the measure, which stalled in the Senate.