MINORITY VOTERS ENTER THE RACE

By Scott Galindez
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 21 January 2008

As the race for the Democratic presidential nomination left the predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, all eyes were looking at the Latino vote in Nevada and the African-American vote in South Carolina. Nevada and South Carolina were moved to the front of the nominating process to give a bigger voice to minorities.

On Saturday in Nevada, Latinos made their voice heard and they came out for Senator Hillary Clinton. Next Saturday, African-Americans will play a major role in South Carolina.

The Culinary Union endorsement of Senator Barack Obama was supposed to give him an advantage both in the special at-large districts on the Las Vegas strip and among Latino voters there, but those advantages did not materialize.

With a clear coalition of other unions and Latino Culinary Union members, Hillary Clinton won seven of the nine at-large locations, including the Caucus I attended at the Wynn Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip.

At the Wynn, Clinton won by two votes: 189 to 187. All of the participants were shift workers who were working within two and a half miles of the site. They had to sign an affidavit stating that they could not make it to their neighborhood precincts. Unions bused in workers from other hotels in the area.

As I watched the Culinary Union members signing in, I thought it was a big day for Obama. When I entered the room where the caucus was being held, I found a different dynamic - one that I was not anticipating.

On one side of the room, Latino Culinary Union members were carrying signs that said, "I support my union and I support Hillary." The split was very visible: African-American union members were for Obama and Latinos were for Hillary.

I spoke with several Latino supporters of Hillary Clinton. The common theme was that they were voting for a return to the days of Bill Clinton. Ricardo Suarez said that "Bill Clinton was like a Kennedy to Latinos; he provided hope, and Hillary can bring us back to the Clinton era, and that is why Latinos support Hillary."

Nevada Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, a young Latino elected official, also told Truthout that it was the economy that attracts Latinos to the Clinton campaign. He said that "we know what the Clintons did for working people in the 90's and while we like Obama, we know Hillary Clinton and trust her to address the needs of our community."

The most troubling reaction came from a few Latino supporters - but was not a widely held belief - that because Obama was black he would not be able to win in November. One Latina waitress named Elia, who went to the Wynn from the Las Vegas Hilton, said that the Latino union members she spoke to who supported Clinton told her that Obama can't win in November while Hillary can, so she stayed with the union and supported Obama.

Another common reaction from Hispanic Culinary Union supporters of Clinton was that they were angry with the union leadership for making an endorsement. They were angry that they were being told who to vote for. They also felt the advertisement run by the union claiming that Clinton didn't respect their right to vote was a cheap shot. They believed that the Clinton campaign had nothing to do with the lawsuit the Teachers Union brought to attempt to block the at-large voting districts on the strip.

The Obama campaign released the following statement from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe:

"We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign's efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites, which clearly had an effect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week's worth of false, divisive attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself."

They stuck by a widely held belief that it was supporters of Senator Clinton who brought the lawsuit, but it may have been the Spanish language commercial that united Latinos behind Clinton.

The Culinary Union ran the following Spanish language ad: (translation by UNITE HERE):

"Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. Hillary Clinton's supporters went to court to stop working people from being able to vote on Saturday. That is disgraceful. Unforgivable. Hillary Clinton does not respect our people who work hard. Hillary Clinton's supporters want to stop people who are working on Saturday so they can't vote. Disgraceful. Unforgivable. Shame on Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton should not let her friends attack the right of our people to vote on Saturday. Disgraceful. Unforgivable. No respect. Senator Barack Obama is defending our right to vote. Senator Obama wants our votes. He respects our votes. He respects our community, our generation. Barack Obama's campaign theme is 'Si Se Puede.' Yes we can. Vote for a President who respects us and our right to vote. Obama for President. Yes we can."

The Clinton campaign demanded that the Obama campaign renounce the ad; it did not and responded by calling on the Clinton campaign to condemn the lawsuit. Instead of condemning it, Bill Clinton defended it.

Both sides alleged harassment and misinformation being given to voters, but I spoke to voters on both sides of the divide in the Culinary Union and they reported no harassment or pressure from the union. Many Clinton supporters at the Wynn arrived on buses paid for by the Culinary Union.

During her victory speech, Hillary Clinton thanked the members of the Culinary Union who supported her campaign and promised a united Democratic Party in November.

The Obama campaign released the following statement from Senator Obama:

"We're proud of the campaign we ran in Nevada. We came from over twenty-five points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled. The reason is because tens of thousands of Nevadans came out to say that they're tired of business-as-usual in Washington and ready for a President who can bring this country together, take on the lobbyists and special interests, and end the politics of saying and doing whatever it takes to win an election. It is the kind of politics that feeds our cynicism and distracts us from taking on the real challenges facing America - an economy that's left working families struggling, a broken health care system, and a war in Iraq that must end.

"We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to people's hopes instead of their fears. That's the campaign we'll take to South Carolina and across America in the weeks to come, and that's how we will truly bring about the change this country is hungry for."

The Clinton campaign countered the claim that Obama had won more delegates, pointing out that no national convention delegates were chosen and that nobody will know the true delegate count until April.

According to a poll of voters entering the caucuses on Saturday conducted by Edison/Mitofsky, Clinton received about half of white voters and almost two-thirds of Hispanic voters. More than three-quarters of black voters supported Obama.

With all eyes moving to the African-American vote in South Carolina, the good news for Obama is that he held the African vote in Nevada by large numbers.

Alicia, an African-American waitress at the Las Vegas Hilton, was anxious to vote for Obama. On Friday at the Paradise Café, she was nervous that she might not be able to go. Two waitresses on her shift requested to be able to attend the caucus; management made no guarantees, and some of the other waitresses who didn't want to attend were complaining that if the two were allowed to attend, it would make things harder on them.

Alicia saw Obama at a rally at the union hall and said he inspired her. She said he was very uplifting and that is why she was supporting Obama, not because the union told her to.

I saw Alicia at the Wynn along with Elia, so the management at the Hilton allowed them both to participate in the caucus.

The results in Nevada sent a strong message to both front runners, but the most important was for Obama. On February 5, states like California and New York, with large Latino populations, will have a large voice. Obama needs to do better among Hispanics. It will be an uphill battle. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is co-chair of Hillary Clinton's campaign. Villaraigosa is one of the most popular Latino elected officials in the country and he will have a huge effect in California.

Clinton must do better among African-Americans in South Carolina. She is pulling out all the stops. Vernon Jordan, Sheila Jackson Lee and other African-American leaders are stumping for her in the palmetto state.

One thing is clear. It's a 15-day sprint to "Super Tuesday," and people of color will have a huge effect the rest of the way.

Scott Galindez is Truthout's Washington, DC Bureau Chief.