Not good, y’all.
Via Jon Ralston:
Operatives from Bernie Sanders' campaign have donned Culinary union pins and secured access to employee areas inside Strip hotels to try to garner votes for the Feb. 20 caucus, sources confirm.
Culinary officials have been made aware of the faux union workers at four hotels -- The Rio, Paris, The Mirage and Planet Hollywood. The Sanders campaigners are wearing the distinctive yellow Local 226 pins, implying they are union members, to gain access to employee dining rooms. Beyond the obvious deception, union officials surely also are concerned about the implication that the organization has endorsed Sanders despite its recent pledge to remain neutral until after the caucus.
"It's inappropriate for any campaign to attempt to mislead Culinary Union members, especially at their place of work," said Yvanna Cancela, Local 226's political director, who confirmed multiple reports at hotels. "As of yet, the union has not made an endorsement, but is focused on a major citizenship and voter registration campaign while preparing for contract negotiations."
Important question: Is this sort of thing happening across the country, or just in this state? We need to know.
Whatever the case, I think Bernie can safely write off Nevada after this scandal.
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UPDATE: The union has just released a statement. This is a very serious situation:
(thank you to northanger in the comments for the heads up)
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UPDATE 2: Ralston can’t believe what he just heard from Jeff Weaver:
(Jon is the go-to journalist for Nevada politics, in case anyone doesn’t know already)
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Crossposted at HillaryHQ.com.