Unite Here Expected to Endorse Obama, giving him a big boost in Nevada

[jefferson_dem]

Unite Here Expected to Endorse Obama
By Steven Greenhouse



Unite Here, the union representing more than 450,000 hotel, restaurant, apparel and laundry workers, is likely to announce its endorsement of Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday, a top union official said yesterday.

The union’s leaders are to vote in a conference call at 11 p.m. Tuesday night, following the New Hampshire primary, and they are expected to back Mr. Obama unless he stumbles badly in New Hampshire.

“There are three excellent candidates in the race ­ we like them all, said Bruce Raynor, the union’s president. “This is a very hard choice.”

The endorsement would make Unite Here the first national union to back Mr. Obama, and it would give him a big leg up in Nevada, where the union’s Las Vegas local, Culinary Local 226, with more than 60,000 members, is by far the largest and strongest union in the state.

Many of Unite Here’s leaders had originally favored Senator John Edwards, but, to Mr. Edwards’s dismay, they were unable to persuade a majority of the union’s board to support him.

Some Unite Here officials insisted on delaying an endorsement because they said it would be unwise to endorse Mr. Edwards when he appeared to have little chance of winning the nomination because he was lagging so far behind Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton in the polls. But those who favored Mr. Edwards countered that endorsements from Unite Here and other unions might enable Mr. Edwards to win the Iowa caucus, giving him the momentum to win elsewhere and ultimately capture the nomination.

The union, a successor to the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Union, also represents 400,000 retirees. Union officials say they could help Mr. Obama in South Carolina because they are one of the largest unions there as a result of the union’s long-time presence in the textile industry there.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/unite-here-expected-to-endorse-obama/