http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=272668OBAMA CAMP TAKES A HIT FROM A LABOR ICON...Delores Huerta is an iconic figure within the trade union movement, and a hero of the civil rights struggles of Latinos -- especially in western states such as Nevada.
So when the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union calls out the Barack Obama campaign and its supporters in the labor movement on the eve of the Nevada caucuses, it is a development that ought to concern Obama.
Even if she is wrong, even if she is being unfair to the opponent of the candidate she favors, Obama does not want to be on Huerta's bad side for long.
And, make no mistake, the campaign of the senator from Illinois is currently getting very low marks from the longtime ally of Cesar Chavez.
Huerta is furious about Spanish-language radio ads that cheer on Obama while suggesting that the candidate she supports, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and her supporters have been disrespectful of Hispanic workers.
"It's pathetic and it's sad and it's unfortunate that they have to stoop so low," Huerta says of Obama's backers, who she suggests are making a desperate play for Hispanic votes in today's Nevada Democratic caucuses. "I have yet to find even one worker -- a Latino worker -- who is supporting Barack Obama."
The radio ads in question, which are paid for by UNITE-HERE, the parent union of the Las Vegas Culinary Workers union local that backs Obama, describe Clinton as "shameless" for encouraging a lawsuit that would have prevented the setting up of at-large caucus sites in casinos on the Vegas Strip.
The at-large sites in hotels that have been organized by the Culinary Workers are seem as key to Obama's effort to win what have become key caucuses. And, while the Clinton campaign did not attach its name to the lawsuit, no one doubts that the Clinton camp has played a behind-the-scenes role in trying to prevent at-large caucuses where it will be easier for casino workers -- many of them Latinos -- to participate in the first stage of the Democratic delegate-selection process.
But Huerta says that it is not the Clinton campaign, but rather Obama's, that is intimidating Latino voters.
Charging that workers at one of the big hotels on the strip, the Hilton, had been told they would get no transportation to the caucuses