LAS VEGAS - An army of union cocktail waitresses, housekeepers and line cooks stands ready to throw its numbers and organizational abilities behind a presidential candidate.
But Democrats who hope to enlist the state's largest labor union to try to win Nevada's new early caucus must address issues important to the service workers who make Las Vegas glitter.
Workers will be listening closely to what the candidates have to say about tip protection, health care, affordable housing and immigration when front-runners Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, along with Sen. Christopher Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, speak at a union rally Friday evening. The event is billed as a kickoff to major contract negotiations, but might also be thought of as a kickoff for the endorsement dance.
The Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, with its 60,000 members, is the largest union in the state and one of the most politically powerful. Its support and the manpower that follows could give a candidate a key edge in the Jan. 19 caucus, the second Democratic caucus in the nation.
So it's no surprise that one of the candidates' first stops was at the Culinary offices.
Union leaders invited all eight Democratic candidates to address their members. Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel and former vice presidential nominee John Edwards declined the invitation, citing scheduling conflicts, union Political Director Pilar Weiss said.
Weiss said the members, about half of whom are immigrants, have said they're most interested in candidates' positions on immigration and health care reform.
"We expect that the candidates will recognize that we have a service economy and they're talking to service workers," Weiss said.
The rally precedes another union event, a presidential candidates forum focused on health care and sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington-based policy group.
It also comes as the rivalry between the Obama and Clinton campaigns has sharpened. Obama on Friday continued to defend his campaign's tie to a Web ad that depicts Clinton as an Orwellian Big Brother figure.
Obama told The Associated Press that the creator of the ad had worked for a consultant hired by the campaign, but that his campaign played no role in its production.
Obama did not denounce the ad and said that he believed it "captured the public's imagination."
Candidates weren't scheduled to appear on stage together in front of a union crowd focused on negotiating a new contract with its two primary employers, MGM Mirage Inc. and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. The world's two largest casino operators account for 50,000 of the Culinary's members.
The rally should be one of several opportunities for the candidates to meet with union members, who are enjoying a new level of national attention.
National Democrats picked Nevada to host the early caucus as a way to draw attention to strong unions, like the Culinary. Boosted by the massive growth of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the Culinary's ranks have more than tripled since 1989.
