Vegas unions rally to save key Democrats from Republican sweep

Since last Saturday, 65 Culinary Local 226 members have been walking door-to-door in northern Clark County, urging members to vote for U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, a Democrat in danger of being swept out of Congress by a surprisingly strong GOP wave crashing across Nevada.

The Culinary also has had 25 specially trained members canvassing Democratic state Sen. Justin Jones’ Las Vegas Senate District 9 since September, telling voters that failing to support him may hand Republicans the Nevada Senate.

The AFL-CIO, meanwhile, has had about 30 volunteers going door-to-door and 10 calling voters. The AFL-CIO now is asking for volunteers to join the door-to-door campaign this Saturday for Jones, a freshman who barely won office two years ago, beating his GOP opponent by 301 votes.

“When labor walks, labor wins,” said an email promising coffee and donuts in the morning and lunch to fuel the effort. “Bring your friends, family and co-workers — join the MOVEMENT!”

On Sunday, the AFL-CIO will lead another volunteer walk in Senate District 8 for Marilyn Dondero Loop, the Democratic assemblywoman whose bid to move to the upper house may be halted by the GOP early voting ballot advantage.

As Election Day approaches, unions are pulling out all the stops to push Democrats to the polls as early voting shows a convincing lead for Republicans, who could sweep statewide offices and take over the state Senate. It’s a long-shot, but the Assembly might also shift. Democrats now have a 27-to-15 advantage there, so the GOP must win at least seven seats to take control.

Statewide, Republicans have cast 21,122 more ballots than Democrats as of Thursday morning. The specter of a sweep has unions leaders working to rescue a few key candidates, with the Culinary focusing on Jones and Horsford.

“If we can get them (union members) out in a low-turnout election we can make a difference,” said Danny Thompson, the AFL-CIO’s executive secretary-treasurer in Nevada. “Any get out the vote effort is a math problem. You don’t know. Anything can happen.”

In a big election year with enthusiasm high, Thompson said, union members can account for up to 32 percent of the vote in Nevada, where the AFL-CIO has 200,000 members and the Culinary has 60,000.

Culinary’s effort this year has been different than in elections when it was key to Democratic victories for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev, in 2010.

Yvanna Cancela, the Culinary’s political director, said this year the union didn’t stage a “massive effort” to canvass voters and get out the vote, partly because union leaders were dissatisfied with Democratic candidates in general.

“At the state level, we lack a comprehensive vision, as a party, for what’s possible in Nevada,” Cancela said. “It’s been very tough for people to imagine the state being in a better place without that kind of leadership and vision.”

Cancela said that assessment will probably anger Democrats, but she said they didn’t seem to be running on issues important to the party, including Obama’s Affordable Care Act. And she said there doesn’t seem to be any strong Democratic leader in the state — in stark contrast to Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who is leading Nevada out of the recession.

“That’s why he’s so popular,” Cancela said. “Nevada was hit really bad by the recession. We have someone (in the governor) talking about hope in a tangible way and getting things done.”

“I think after the election there’s going to be a lot of ‘shuda, wuda, cuda’ and finger pointing,” she added.

Sandoval was the only Republican the Culinary endorsed this year. The AFL-CIO backed only Democrats, and skipped the governor’s race, where the party failed to find a top-tier candidate. The token nominee, Bob Goodman, lost the Democratic primary to “none of the above.”

Cancela said the Culinary’s eleventh-hour “emergency” effort for Horsford recognizes his strong support of the union. Horsford ran the Culinary Training Academy for 11 years before he was elected to Congress in 2012, and is “part of the union family,” she said.

Horsford visited the Culinary union hall Thursday to cheer the workers on before they headed out to canvass his 4th Congressional District, which covers northern Clark County and all or part of six rural counties. Some 80 percent of the district’s voters live in Clark County, a Democratic stronghold and Horsford’s base as a state senator.

In the 4th district, Republicans were leading Democrats by 2,740 early voting ballots as of Thursday morning, with the GOP picking up 44 percent of the early vote compared to 39 percent for Democrats. Republicans were even outpacing Democrats in Clark County with a 142-ballot GOP edge. The district, by voter registration, has 33,000 more Democrats than Republicans, meaning a vast majority of Horsford’s party has yet to vote.

In fact, early voting turnout in Clark County, including absentee and mail-in ballots, is only 15 percent so far, giving Democrats plenty of potential voters to persuade to participate.

“We’ve got lots of apples to pick from the tree,” Cancela said.

But the same is true for the Republicans.

Horsford’s Republican opponent is Assemblyman Cresent Hardy of Mesquite. His campaign said the contest will be a nail biter, but his advisers have faith that his supporters can overcome the union campaign.

“We believe this is going to be a very close election,” said Scott Scheid, of the Hardy campaign. “Our campaign plans to hit thousands of doors during the final 72 hours of this campaign with a very motivated volunteer base.”

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj.