Unions hold keys, some bigger than others, to caucus

By J. Patrick Coolican

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007 | 6:54 a.m.

CulinaryCulinaryCulinary. It's all you ever hear from political watchers these days, as everyone anticipates the 60,000-strong union's endorsement in Nevada's Jan. 19 Democratic presidential caucus. The leading candidates are going to the union hall and promising to march with workers if they go on strike against MGM Mirage after a vote next month. The national press is writing profiles of Culinary chief D. Taylor. The thinking is that the caucus won't have a big turnout, and the candidate with Culinary Local 226 in its corner will have an army of get-out-the-vote volunteers with a proven track record, at least in local races.

But leading Democrats, including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, are also reaching out to other labor unions and their leadership, because the other unions, with varying degrees of success, are also moving forward with their own caucus plans. For the most part, labor unions drive Democratic voter turnout in Nevada.

A caucus creates even more competition for labor support, because unlike a regular election, a caucus entails people showing up at a specific time and place and voicing public support for a candidate in front of their neighbors. Labor is uniquely situated to train people in caucus politics and get them to the polls. Also, union members are experienced in going to meetings and voicing their opinions.

Below, a profile of some labor unions and their leadership, and what they're doing for the caucus. Many of them will meet this week at the AFL-CIO convention in Reno.

The Service Employees International Union has 15,000 members and is led by Jane McAlevey, who's added 6,000 workers and is in the middle of more organizing campaigns. About two-thirds of members are registered to vote, and the goal is to get to 90 percent.

McAlevey led SEIU nurses in a high-profile negotiation last year against Valley Health System and is now ramping up the political operation for the caucus. Headquarters in D.C. are paying for 30 SEIU members to act as full-time organizers. They will organize by shop, and then outward from shop into neighborhood.

SEIU will make an endorsement decision at its September meeting in Washington, D.C.

The Nevada State Education Association has 28,000 members. They live in every precinct in the state, and 75 percent of them are registered. They're educated, professional and tend to vote in greater numbers than their union counterparts, although with their high level of education and media consumption, they may be more inclined to make their own decision on caucus day rather than follow an endorsement.

The association is led by Lynn Warne, a new president and fourth grade teacher on leave, as well as the active political team of Julie Whitacre and longtime Nevada Democratic consultant Dan Hart, whose brutal mail campaign helped defeat state Sen. Sandra Tiffany in 2006.

The teachers union has been training members at a summer leadership conference. Those leaders will then go out and train across the state.

Warne said that when she was president of the union in Washoe County before becoming president statewide, 35 percent of her members actively volunteered during the last election cycle. That would be a stunning number if she can replicate it statewide.

Jim Farence, a Nevada political consultant, said the teachers could be the secret weapon of the caucus.

The National Education Association will provide a list of acceptable candidates, and then the Nevada State Education Association's board will decide whether to endorse, and whom to endorse, sometime in the fall. The national association will likely flood the state with money and operatives if the Nevada Democratic caucus proves to be significant.

On three days notice recently, 700 carpenters of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters showed up at Las Vegas City Hall to demonstrate. That ability to turn them out has labor leaders and politicos pointing to Marc Furman and the union's 12,000 Nevada carpenters as potential players in the caucus. The union breakdown: 40 percent Democrat, 38 percent Republican, 22 percent unaffiliated. Membership has tripled in 10 years.

"We can have a disproportionate impact because we can get people where we need them, and a caucus is all about getting people where you need them," Furman said.

Roberta West is the president of the Nevada board of the AFL-CIO and is president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which has 7,000 members here.

The union has a core caucus team of 50 members who will train workers and lead them in the run-up to the caucus.

West said she's unsure how many members are registered. The united food workers' parent is a massive and deep-pocketed union, which combined with the service employees union to take on Wal-Mart, and headquarters could send money and experienced operatives here.

Rusty McAllister is the president of the Professional Firefighters of Nevada and its 2,450 members. The membership breaks down 50-50 Democrat to Republican. The union's international will send help, which will replicate the firefighters operation in Iowa, another early caucus state. One common tactic is to flood a state with retired firefighters to organize.

An endorsement will come soon, McAllister said.

The Teamsters have three locals in Nevada and are led by Gary Mauger, Wayne King and Mike Magnani. The three locals represent about 11,500 members, which could be a potent force if they can organize and mobilize.

Mauger's local has taken on the teachers union, trying to get Clark County teachers to drop the union and switch to Teamsters Local 14. As he said recently about the conflict, "The Teamsters have never walked away from a fight - we're about to get into a big one." The Teamsters' parent federation, Change to Win, will likely not make an endorsement.

The AFL-CIO, which is an umbrella federation of many unions such as sheet metal and electrical workers, won't endorse before the caucus, although affiliates are free to. That means AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson won't be helping someone win the caucus directly, but he's still one of the most important labor leaders in the state, and he's highly motivated to get out union members.

Thompson, a former state legislator, commands respect from members and labor leaders alike.

The Nevada AFL-CIO has 200,000 members statewide and is undertaking its own effort aimed at voter registration, caucus education and voter turnout. The labor federation will hold caucus training sessions for members this week at its Reno convention.

Union members there will hear from three Democratic presidential contenders: Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. The three Democratic front-runners - Obama, Clinton and Edwards - plan to send campaign surrogates, union officials said.

AFL-CIO affiliates include many building trades, which don't have the same level of political organization and activism of unions noted above, although the caucus is seen as an opportunity to develop that prowess.

Steve Ross, a Las Vegas councilman, is also newly head of the Southern Nevada Building Trades and Construction Council and will help the building trades organize for the caucus. Ross said the council will work toward that end in conjunction with the AFL-CIO.

The building trades' labor leaders and political organizers include Randy Soltero, Tom Morley, Tommy White, Greg Esposito and Jack Mallory.