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In Testy Exchange, President Clinton Defends Suit Over Nevada Voting

by Josh Gerstein
Wed, 16 Jan 2008 at 3:56 PM

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At a stop in Oakland this afternoon, President Clinton vigorously defended a lawsuit challenging Nevada's decision to permit casino workers to join presidential caucuses at their workplaces, even as he denied that he or his wife's campaign had anything to do with the litigation. He argued that the casino caucuses were deliberately set up to have a disproportionate impact on the outcome of the contest.

"Do you really believe that all the Democrats understood that they had agreed to give everybody who voted in a casino a vote worth five times as much as people who voted in their own precinct? Did you know that?" Mr. Clinton said in a testy exchange with a television reporter, Mark Matthews of KGO. "What happened is nobody understood what had happened. ... Now, everybody's saying, 'Oh they don't want us to vote.' What they really tried to do was to set up a deal where their votes counted five times, maybe even more."

Last Friday, several individuals and a teachers union sued to prevent caucuses from being held in nine casinos along the Las Vegas Strip. The special sites were set up to make it easier for casino employees to vote at midday Saturday.

The plaintiffs argue that the sites allocate a disproportionately high number of delegates to one group of voters. More than 700 out of roughly 10,000 delegates to Nevada's presidential nominating convention could be selected at the casino caucuses.

Workers at most casinos on the Strip are organized by the powerful Culinary Workers Union, which has endorsed Senator Clinton's rival for the nomination, Senator Obama of Illinois.

Mr. Clinton said the arrangement undercuts the basic tenets of American democracy. "This is a one-man, one-vote country," he said. "Some people in Nevada are old fashioned. They think the rules should be the same for everbody and everybody's vote should count the same."

The former president rejected suggestions that the litigation was prompted by Mrs. Clinton's campaign in the wake of the culinary union's decision to back Mr. Obama. "We had nothing to do with this lawsuit. I read about it in the newspaper," he said.

Mr. Clinton turned the tables on Mr. Matthews, whom the former president asserted had taken "an accusatory tone" by claiming a link to Mrs. Clinton's operation. "Your position is that you think the Culinary Workers votes should count: A — It should be easier for them to vote than anybody else in Nevada that has to work on Saturday. That's your first position. Second, when they do vote their votes should count five times as much as everybody else. That's what the teachers have questioned. So if that's your position, you have it. Get on your television station and say it. ... 'All I care about is making sure that some voters have it easier than others and that when they do vote, when it's already easier for them, their vote should count five times as much as others.' That is your position," Mr. Clinton said. "If you want to take that position, get on the television and take it. Don't be accusatory with me. I have enough to deal with."

The exchange came at an Oakland barbecue restaurant as Mr. Clinton took questions following a forum on the home mortgage crisis.

At one point during the exchange with the TV reporter, Mayor Ron Dellums tried to physically pull Mr. Clinton away, but the former president held his ground.

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