Democrats take a risk not heeding the fury of a Culinary scorned

Political consultant Dan Hart usually is popular in Democratic circles. He's a fun guy. Smart and witty. But at the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, you'd have thought the man had cooties.

One Democratic Party official wouldn't even acknowledge his existence. Another Democratic activist, only partly in jest, sidled away from Hart.

Friends of Sen. Hillary Clinton, however, walked by with big smiles for Hart, a consultant to the Nevada State Education Association. Hart is credited (or blamed) with orchestrating the idea for the teachers union to file a legal challenge to the at-large caucus sites in nine Las Vegas Strip hotels.

The challenge, filed Friday, pits the teachers union against Culinary Local 226 and if successful would benefit Clinton and harm Sen. Barack Obama, the Culinary's endorsed candidate.

Today at 9 a.m. in federal court, U.S. District Judge James Mahan will hear arguments as to whether allowing on-duty hotel workers the ability to caucus at hotels instead of in the precincts where they live is unfair and gives gaming workers disproportionate influence.

I suspect the judge will let the Nevada Democratic Party go forward with the at-large sites. He'll probably agree that if this was a real issue of fairness, the teachers union had plenty of time to bring it up far earlier than the week of the caucus. The at-large plan was first aired by party officials in March, for crying out loud. The unusual rules were later approved by the Democratic National Committee.

The teachers union, which insists it is only doing this because it's the right thing to do and not because some leaders support Clinton, waited until after Obama became Culinary's choice. Apparently that's the moment the nine caucus sites became so horribly unjust. Of course if Clinton had been endorsed, nobody would have challenged those sites, designed to make it easier for working stiffs to participate.

After Saturday, the national campaigns are out of here and on to South Carolina. In their wake they are leaving some deep divisions among Democrats who have long been allies.

Based on the fury I saw in him Monday, Culinary leader D. Taylor won't forget this late-in-the-game effort to disenfranchise his union members. Democratic Party officials, national and local, hoping for a trouble-free caucus are furious that their first early caucus in Nevada is facing a legal challenge.

But supporters of the Clintons are smiling.

For now.

Elected officials such as County Commissioner Rory Reid, Rep. Shelley Berkley and state Sen. Dina Titus didn't rush to condemn the lawsuit. Normally, they're for the workers in the state's largest industry. But they're all Clinton supporters. Reid is state chairman for Clinton. Hart is one of his consultants.

But the caucus site brouhaha is going to have an effect, even if the Culinary union wins in court.

Oh, the union won't be supporting any Republican on Election Day. That will never happen.

But will it use its famed organizational skills to help Clinton if she becomes the nominee?

Not bloody likely.

My biggest gripe with the Culinary is not that it is willing to use its political clout both to help friends and eliminate enemies, such as ex-County Commissioner Lynette Boggs. My gripe is that union officials won't tell us how many of its vaunted 60,000 members are citizens eligible to caucus. That's a number they refuse to release, and you know they have identified members who are citizens and who are Democrats. Plus they're helping citizens register as Democrats. Perhaps the number of Culinary members eligible to caucus isn't nearly as formidable as the union would like us to believe.

I predicted earlier, before the union endorsed Obama, that whoever received the Culinary endorsement will win the Nevada Democratic caucus. Presuming Mahan does the sensible thing and tosses the teachers union challenge, I stick by that call.

But Democrats who aren't condemning the teachers union might ask themselves whether Taylor's wrath will fade, and what sort of welcome they might receive when they next go looking for endorsements from the Culinary.

Taylor isn't afraid to play hardball when he's been jerked around. And he is one angry man.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.