Obama hit over labor union ads

NORTH LAS VEGAS — Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential rivals yesterday accused him of hypocrisy because a labor union that backs his candidacy is running attack ads against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The political arm of the powerful Culinary Workers union, which says in its Spanish-language radio ads that Mrs. Clinton does not respect Hispanics, won a victory yesterday when a federal court blocked a lawsuit brought by Clinton supporters who wanted to stop casino workers from voting in at-large precinct caucuses set up on the Strip.

The nasty back-and-forth between the two campaigns, with former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina also weighing in, is the backdrop for tomorrow’s Nevada caucus.

After Mr. Obama won the backing of Unite Here, a union which represents more than 60,000 dishwashers, bellhops and other workers in Las Vegas, a teachers union supporting Mrs. Clinton sued the state party and said its process to allow those workers and others to caucus on the Strip was unfair to the rest of Nevada.

A judge yesterday ruled against the teachers union, saying the state party is free to set its own rules.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, hailed the decision as encouraging broad participation, while Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said that although her campaign would follow the rules, the process is still “unfair.”

“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,” the campaign said.

Unite Here has been running the radio ads on Spanish-language stations keying off the lawsuit and lauding Mr. Obama.

“Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. Hillary Clinton’s supporters went to court to stop working people from being able to vote on Saturday. That is disgraceful,” says the Spanish-language ad, according to a translation provided by the union. “Shame on Hillary Clinton.”

Clinton supporter Maria Echaveste, a former White House deputy chief of staff, described the ads as “outrageous” and “a personal attack.” She and labor leader Dolores Huerta called on Mr. Obama yesterday to get the group to stop running the ads.

Staffers for both the Clinton and Edwards campaigns said Mr. Obama is a hypocrite because he railed against similar ads run against him in Iowa by groups that backed his opponents.

“In Iowa, Senator Obama and his campaign went out of his way to attack labor unions for independently promoting other candidates. But in Nevada, he’s looking the other way as they falsely attack his opponents,” Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said.

Edwards deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince said Mr. Obama should be demanding that the ads come down.

“He loudly and repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of special interests,” he said. “But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf in Nevada, there’s not a peep from him or his campaign.”

Obama spokesman Bill Burton rejected the argument, while adding that his boss thinks that “campaigns should fund themselves and discourage supporters from spending outside the campaign.”

Mr. Burton added that groups backing Mr. Edwards in Iowa paid for a “massive” effort and were tied to former top Edwards aides.

“It’s not our ad,” Mr. Burton said, adding that the Clinton campaign courted the culinary union. “Coming from a campaign that is repeatedly launching absolutely false attacks against Senator Obama, it takes some chutzpah. The fact is their camp clearly would like to have workers’ voices silenced and they need to live with that unfortunate position.”

The union said the ad will stay on the airwaves.

“We’re going to run it as long as we need to,” said Chris Bohner, a Unite Here spokesman, adding that Mr. Obama has not asked the union to stop running the ad.

“The intent of the lawsuit was to disenfranchise thousands of workers and suppress the vote. They didn’t win the lawsuit, but it’s really confused a lot of the people on the Strip,” he said.

The state party — which was joined in its legal defense by the Democratic National Committee — said the sites were created “to increase participation” and to allow the more than 100,000 shift workers who are employed along Las Vegas Boulevard the opportunity to take part.

The at-large sites were established nearly a year ago and approved by the appropriate officials in the state and within the national party, said Nevada Democratic Party Chairman Jill Derby.

“Despite the characterization of some, this process is fair to all Nevadans, union member or not, whether they work within a 2.5-mile radius of the Las Vegas Strip or will caucus at their home precincts,” she said.