Thursday, June 4, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.
EVENTS IN CALIFORNIA this week threaten to turn the Nevada GOP's workers rights initiative into one of the great political boondoggles here.
Nevada labor leaders are ecstatic in the wake of Tuesday's rejection by California voters of Proposition 226, a similar initiative that sought to require unions to get permission from their members before deducting dues for political purposes.
"We thought we had more of a shot to beat it in Nevada than California," says Glen Arnodo, the political director for the Culinary Union. "This is giving us tremendous confidence."
Organized labor here is preparing for its biggest political battle of the year, as the Republican Party scampers to turn in 46,764 signatures by June 16 to qualify the workers rights (or paycheck protection) initiative for the November ballot.
"This is our life," Arnodo says. "Our ability to represent our members hinges on us defeating paycheck protection."
Arnodo says California unions mobilized to beat back Proposition 226, which Republicans once claimed was supported by more than 70 percent of the voters.
A similar campaign is planned by the Nevada AFL-CIO, which is mounting a counter-petition drive.
"If you have the ability to get to the voters and union families and explain it to them, they will understand that it is wrong," Arnodo says.
Arnodo explains that Nevada unions understand the "depth of the work that needs to be done" in the coming weeks.
The Nevada initiative is well-funded, reportedly bankrolled by Las Vegas Sands Inc. Chairman Sheldon Adelson, who is at war with the Culinary Union.
Republican operative Charles Muth, the initiative's point man who acknowledges receiving money from Adelson, calls the defeat of Proposition 226 a "hollow victory" for labor and predicts it will have little effect on the battle in Nevada.
Muth charges union bosses in California mounted a campaign of "lies" and "deception" to win there.
"When it's debated on its merits, it will win," Muth says.
Nevada Republican Party Chairman John Mason has pushed hard for the Nevada initiative.
His efforts split Republicans and almost cost him his job at the recent GOP state convention in Las Vegas.
Top Republicans, led by the likes of gubernatorial candidate Kenny Guinn and Scott Scherer, who's running for attorney general, have gone on record against the petition drive.
This week, Guinn and Scherer signed the AFL-CIO's counter-petition, and it paid off in a big way for both men.
Scherer was endorsed by the AFL-CIO over two-term Democratic incumbent Frankie Sue Del Papa, and for the first time in recent memory, the state's largest labor organization did not publicly back a Democrat for governor.
The endorsement remains open, which will benefit Guinn in the general election should he make it out of the primary.
But other Republicans may not be so lucky.
Labor's intense desire to defeat the workers rights initiative in Nevada could encourage record numbers of union members and their families to vote in November.
That will benefit Democratic candidates, such as Sen. Harry Reid, who's seeking a third term, and Regent Shelley Berkley, who's running for Congress.
Rose McKinney-James, who won the AFL-CIO's endorsement this week in the lieutenant governor's race, also will be helped at the polls.
For the Republicans, a political boondoggle may be on the horizon.
This has not been a good week for Frankie Sue Del Papa.
Failing to win the AFL-CIO's endorsement was a severe blow to her bid for a third term.
But more bad news may be forthcoming for the attorney general.
As it turned out, the labor leader who moved to endorse Scott Scherer over Del Papa at this week's AFL-CIO political convention in Reno was Dan Holley, vice president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.
The influential PPA, which represents the cops on the street, has long supported Del Papa, who has made good use out of its endorsement in past campaigns.
This time, however, Del Papa may not get a free ride.
Scherer already has spoken to the PPA's executive board, which makes the endorsements, and was well-received.
If the police union also ends up backing Scherer, it could be the kiss of death to Del Papa's campaign.
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