Jones gains support of labor

Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones picked up the endorsement of the Nevada AFL-CIO today in the race for governor.

Jones went into this morning's vote as the favorite to win a two-thirds majority of the 390 convention delegates needed to claim labor's support.

The delegates threw their support to Jones in a voice vote behind closed doors.

"I'm absolutely delighted," Jones said immediately after the vote. "This means everything to me. I think it's the key to the election."

The AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization in the state, was not considering whether to endorse Republican Las Vegas businessman Kenny Guinn. But Guinn and his strategists were mounting a furious effort to block the mayor's bid.

Late Monday, Guinn still held out hope he could keep Jones from receiving labor's backing.

"I've never expected to get the endorsement," he said. "What I've been hoping for is the best I felt I could get -- a neutral position."

Guinn, who addressed the convention this morning at the New Frontier hotel-casino, got help from the Culinary Union, the largest and most politically active local in the AFL-CIO. Culinary leaders instructed the union's 70-plus delegates to abstain in the Jones endorsement vote.

The Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents some 2,000 Metro officers, also was solidly in Guinn's corner.

But both unions did not have enough clout to stop Jones from winning the endorsement.

The Culinary Union's decision to stay neutral returned a favor to Guinn, who won the hearts of union leaders a couple of months ago, when he helped broker a deal to abort the Republican Party's paycheck protection initiative against labor. Guinn's steadfast opposition to the ballot campaign came in the middle of his heated GOP primary race.

Guinn has had cordial relations with Culinary Union leaders and top AFL-CIO officials, such as Executive Secretary-Treasurer Blackie Evans, throughout his campaign for governor in the past two years.

But his position against collective bargaining for state workers ultimately turned the tide against him within the labor movement. Collective bargaining will be the single most important issue to labor at the 1999 Legislature. Jones has come out in support of it.

On Sunday morning, Evans and Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Jim Arnold met with Guinn in a last-ditch effort to see whether the Republican would soften his stance against collective bargaining. He modified his position a little, indicating he would not veto such a bill if both houses of the Legislature approved it. But his new stance still did not match the mayor's unequivocal support.

The AFL-CIO endorsement is considered more important this year, because the labor group is mounting an ambitious statewide campaign to get its 120,000 members to the polls in November. The Culinary Union is playing a key role in the campaign.

"I think the endorsement of labor is very powerful," Jones said Monday, after delivering a well-received speech at the convention. "I think that you'll see labor awakened in these elections. I think they'll make sure that the apathy that everyone fears in these elections will not exist."

During her talk, which received frequent applause, Jones told the the labor leaders what they wanted to hear.

"I have always stood by the workers of this state," she said. "As governor, I will continue to stand by the workers of this state."

Guinn, meanwhile, predicted he would get "substantial votes" from individual unions throughout Nevada.

Most political pundits still regard Guinn as having the best chance at winning the governor's race.

So far, Guinn remains ahead in the polls, though Jones has closed the gap. Guinn also has more money in his campaign coffers than the mayor, who entered the race late.

Guinn has worked hard to attract support from Democrats, hiring the party's biggest fund-raisers early in his bid.

One of his chief strategists, Las Vegas advertising executive Billy Vassiliadis, is the top political adviser to Democratic Gov. Bob Miller, who is backing Jones.

Vassiliadis ran Miller's primary race against Jones in 1994.

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