Jon Ralston on how presidential hopefuls are trying to curry favor with the Culinary Union

Sunday, Aug. 12, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

The rhetorical contortions of presidential hopefuls visiting Nevada remain a spectacle not to be missed.

The gymnastics on Yucca Mountain are occasionally entertaining but usually annoying, with practiced buzz phrases such as "sound science" as predictable as the inflated sense by the media that the issue really matters much in presidential voting.

But nuclear waste dump pandering is a sideshow compared to the vaudeville act that is ongoing at Culinary Union headquarters, as the Democratic White House hopefuls serially try to prove who loves labor most. This continues to get ratcheted to new levels in this game of one-upmanship, with Sen. Hillary Clinton the latest to pledge to walk a picket line if the Culinary votes to strike a month from today.

The state's most powerful union has seen elected officials dance for it before - I still remember the competition on the Clark County Commission between Erin Kenny and Yvonne Atkinson Gates to be the Culinary's go-to girl.

But this isn't about influencing a redistricting plan or stopping Wal-Mart from expanding. This is about helping to determine the outcome of a presidential caucus and, by extension, hav ing a potentially significant effect on who the nominee will be if Nevada retains its early-state clout.

We can debate how much actual influence the 50,000-member union will have. Yes, some Culinary members are not Democrats, but those who are generally will follow the union endorsement. And turnout probably will not be nearly as robust as some of the outlandish predictions by some, perhaps as low as 25,000, which will maximize the union's impact.

(One wild card is that the caucus is scheduled on a Saturday during Martin Luther King weekend, and many Culinary workers may have a difficult time getting off from work. I am sure that will be even more difficult at MGM Mirage properties should a strike occur.)

The calculus for the presidential hopefuls is obvious: They believe the union is the key to the caucus, so they will say and do almost anything to curry favor.

And the Culinary folks are exploiting this to the hilt, painting the specter of a picket line in front of the Bellagio with Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and the rest posing for what would be an international press corps. I bet they think this is putting much pressure on MGM Mirage and downtown properties to settle, lest they become national symbols of recalcitrant, greedy managers.

The figurative sight here is as startling as the potentially literal one in September: Candidates running for the highest office in the country are sticking a thumb in the eye of the state's most potent special interest, one that has provided some of their campaigns with money in the past, for short-term gain. (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has taken $10,000 this year from MGM Mirage and says he hopes the negotiations bear fruit, also has pledged to join a strike line.)

These candidates, although well briefed before they pander, surely have not tried to get the other side, perhaps with a phone call to MGM Mirage boss Terry Lanni: "Mr. Lanni, I'm trying to decide in a thoughtful, deliberate manner whether to side with the Culinary in this labor dispute. Could you give me your perspective on this issue?"

I have no doubt that most of the candidates think their promise to walk the line carries no political risk. In fact, most probably believe that there will be no strike, so they will not have to deliver.

But rest assured that if the Culinary votes to strike, the union leadership will call in these markers. And the candidates won't be able to use the proverbial "scheduling conflict" to back out of this commitment. They will have to appear on a picket line, whether it's on the Strip or downtown, with all the volatility that such a situation would carry with it.

The evolution for the union has been, ahem, striking. For months the national media have played up the likelihood that Edwards, who is close to Culinary partner UNITE, has a leg up on the endorsement. The locals have downplayed such speculation, insisting Edwards is far from a lock. And with Obama and Clinton equaling or bettering Edwards' rhetoric to workers, union insiders say it is a toss-up.

The Culinary endorsement is not expected to come anytime soon, probably not until late this year. So there is plenty of time for the Democratic presidential hopefuls to carry this high-stakes game of "who loves the Culinary more" to newly spectacular heights.

I wonder who will be carrying the largest picket sign.