This week’s Democratic presidential food fight, over the rules governing Saturday’s precinct caucuses in Nevada, has been resolved. Short version: Barack Obama won, Hillary Clinton lost.

Here’s the AP’s somewhat longer take on the dispute:

An attempt by Democrats with ties to Hillary Rodham Clinton to prevent casino workers from caucusing at special precincts in Nevada failed in court Thursday.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan was presumed to be a boost for Clinton rival Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday because he has been endorsed by the union representing many of the shift workers who will be able to use the precincts on the Las Vegas strip.

“State Democrats have a First Amendment right to association, to assemble and to set their own rules,” Mahan said. Nevada’s Democratic Party approved creation of the precincts to make it easier for housekeepers, waitresses and bellhops to caucus during the day near work rather than have to do so in their neighborhoods.

The state teacher’s union, which has ties to Clinton, and other plaintiffs brought the suit against the special precincts shortly after local 226 of the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama for the Democratic nomination. The union is the largest in Nevada, with 60,000 members. The Clinton campaign said it was not involved in the suit.

The lawsuit infuriated D. Taylor, president of the Culinary Workers Union, who told the Wall Street Journal: “This is the Clinton campaign,” he said. “They tried to disenfranchise students in Iowa. Now they’re trying to disenfranchise people here in Nevada. You’d think the Democratic Party elite would disavow this, but the silence has been deafening.” (The Democratic National Committee belatedly supported the Nevada party’s stance.)

Of all the back-and-forth between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, the choicest was former President Bill Clinton’s lengthy on-camera rant about the whole kerfluffle:

For its part, the Obama campaign fired off a well-spun e-mail shortly after the judge’s ruling:

“We’re glad that the Nevada court upheld the Nevada Democratic Party’s
caucus plan which encourages voter participation. While the Clinton camp
clearly believed the voices of workers should be silenced in service of
their perceived political interest, they enjoyed a twenty five-point
lead two months ago and have much of the party establishment in their
camp. So, despite their inherent advantages we are pleased this should
be a close and competitive contest Saturday,” said Obama campaign
spokesman Bill Burton.

And late this afternoon, the Clinton campaign issued its own version of the decision:

“Nevadans have the opportunity to play a special role in the nominating process on Saturday, and we are thrilled with the energy and support we are seeing across the state. It is clear that Nevadans are excited about participating in this process. While we were not involved in this lawsuit, and have always said that we would play by the rules that we’re given, it has always been our hope that every Nevadan should have equal access and opportunity to participate in the caucus. Make no mistake –the current system that inhibits some shift workers from being able to participate, while allowing others to do so, would seem to benefit other campaigns. More importantly it is unfair. We also are concerned with recent news reports about voter intimidation tactics that would further discourage some Nevadans from participating on Saturday. Our strategy remains the same - we want as many people as possible to participate in the caucus, and we are going to reach out to as many Nevadans as possible in an effort to do as well as possible on Saturday. The Obama campaign has been clear in its belief that whoever wins the culinary union endorsement will win Nevada. We will leave it up to the people of Nevada to make that decision.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Main, Presidential. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.