Edwards to meet with Culinary members
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will return to Las Vegas on Thursday to meet with members of the Culinary union, a union official confirmed Tuesday.
Edwards, who was here just last week, will meet with a group of about 40 members of the committee negotiating a new contract for the union with MGM Mirage and some smaller gaming companies, said the Culinary's political director, Pilar Weiss. The 5 p.m. meeting at the union hall downtown is not open to the general public.
The small-group Culinary meeting will be the latest in a series of Democratic candidate appearances with the powerful union.
A few candidates participated in a 5,000-person Culinary rally in March, and nearly all the Democrats trouped through in May and June to speak separately to about 350 members representing most of the negotiating committee.
Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met with about a dozen Culinary members in Las Vegas before heading to a house party hosted by a supporter.
Obama's meeting was smaller, held in his room at Caesars Palace, because of the difficulty of moving a candidate with Secret Service protection from place to place.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and former vice presidential nominee, will be fresh off a three-day tour of poverty-stricken areas that ends today.
