The state teachers union went to court to challenge the plan, arguing that the casino caucus sites Saturday night will give the roughly 200,000 workers on the Las Vegas strip an unfair advantage over other voters who have to work that night.
But U.S. District Judge James Mahan rejected that argument after a Thursday morning hearing.
The lawsuit sparked a battle between the 28,000-member Nevada State Education Association and the state's biggest labor organization, the 60,000-member Nevada Culinary Workers Union, which supports the casino caucuses. The culinary workers endorsed Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in Saturday's contest and accused the teachers union of trying to tilt the race in favor of his leading rival, senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton of New York.
Recent published polls show Clinton and Obama in a statistical dead heat going into the Nevada contest. Saturday's results could give the winner the upper hand going into the first contest in the South, the January 26 primary in South Carolina.
"When you're trying to change the rules a week before that were approved 10 months before, that's just not right, and I think people see through it as just crass politics," D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada Culinary Workers Union, said Wednesday.
The teachers' union has not endorsed Clinton, though some of its members and leaders are backing the former first lady.
From this little electoral escapades, it appears that the Clinton campaign desired the prevention of the caucuses at the hotel. A guest, who sounded as if he represented the Clinton campaign, on Tucker Calson's show tonight stated that the people who would vote there would be the workers in the Casinos, the valets, the kitchen workers, the uneducated, and they would not be smart or willful enough to stand up to their union bosses, who would of course be in the room. This of course means that the Clintons, both Hillary and Bill, would lose votes as Barack would gain votes through voter intimidation.
Bill Clinton attacked the lawsuit because it would give the casino workers an unfair advantage and give them, a group with 60,000 people, five times the vote of the teacher unions, a group with 28,000.
Of course, if we discuss electoral fairness, it would not be fair that the casino workers need to work while the teachers, since it is Saturday, do not. It is also unfair that some people live closer to poling places, etc...
The best standard would be state and federal holidays for election days for both primary and general elections.
Here is a very interesting clip between former President Clinton and a reporter, Mark Matthews, who challenged President Clinton on the lawsuit.
I am sure that this would all be different if the Casino Union supported the Clintons.
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