Wednesday, May 2, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.
Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson capped a long weekend in Nevada by speaking to Culinary Union members Tuesday - providing evidence of two truths.
First, Richardson's presence underscored the primary role unions will play in the Jan. 19 Democratic caucus.
Second, Richardson is spending more time in Nevada these days than in New Mexico, where he is governor. Nevada offers his best chance of surprising the Democratic front-runners early in the 2008 primaries.
In fact, during an hourlong talk with about 200 Culinary members, he lamented that he cannot make the big fight in Las Vegas on Saturday between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"Oscar De La Hoya is fighting," the Hispanic governor said, excitedly, prompting big applause from the largely Hispanic crowd. "I haven't missed a fight in years."
Richardson noted that as a second-tier candidate, without either the money or celebrity of his party's front-runners, he'll have to work hard to cultivate support at the grass-roots level. And as the only Westerner in the Democratic race, he is moving swiftly to capitalize on what he sees as a natural edge in Nevada.
"Other candidates come here for three hours," Richardson said. "I've been here for three days."
At the union hall, Richardson found perhaps his most important audience. Indeed, he called the Culinary "the strongest force in Nevada politics." With 60,000 members, the Culinary is the largest and most politically active local in Nevada.
Richardson's appearance came at a critical time. The union's talks with the casino industry's two largest players - MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment - have bogged down, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said.
Current five-year contracts, affecting about 50,000 hotel and restaurant service employees, expire June 1. About 21,000 of those workers are employed by MGM Mirage; 16,500 work for Harrah's. All are potential Democratic voters, and Richardson laid it on thick.
He said he supports federal legislation that ensures the rights of workers to organize through a process known as "card check " and has honored those rights in New Mexico. The issue is the main obstacle in union talks with MGM Mirage, which seeks to limit card check privileges at Project CityCenter, the company's $7 billion development.
Card check allows workers to organize simply by expressing their wishes once, by checking a box on a card. The alternative, which prevails nearly everywhere in the nation, is for management to require workers also to vote on the issue, providing time for companies to campaign against the union.
Richardson lauded the union's push for a housing trust to help members buy homes. He also touted his pro-labor record and said that as New Mexico governor, he revived collective bargaining rights for public employees. If elected president, he said he will nominate a union member as labor secretary.
On Nevada issues, Richardson said as president he would address growth by allocating federal funds for more transportation projects such as light rail to alleviate clogged highways. He criticized a bill in the Nevada Legislature that would deny college scholarships to the children of illegal immigrants.
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