Analysis: O'Malley works on making his name known in Nevada.
Martin O’Malley will be the first to admit he may not exactly be a household name in Nevada.
“Like any candidate who is unknown, I have to marshal my time and make my case to the people of Iowa first, the people of New Hampshire second, and the people of Nevada third,” he says.
His one-step-at-a-time campaign Monday took him to a conference room on the Culinary Union Health Fund campus in downtown Las Vegas. The Culinary, with 55,000 members, is the state’s biggest and most politically powerful union. It runs one of the biggest health care operations in the state. O’Malley, the former two-term Governor of Maryland, came calling.
He told them why he should be president.
They told him why the so-called “Cadillac Tax” needs to be scrapped: that’s the tax on expensive health care plans that helps pay for the Affordable Care Act. It is very unpopular with unions like the Culinary, which see it as a tax on their members who have fought hard for good health care.
They found a sympathetic ear in O’Malley, who has called for scrapping the tax.
They’re no strangers, O’Malley and the Culinary. In August, on a sweltering sunlit day, he stood in front of Trump Las Vegas, supporting the union’s effort to organize the property.
Fast forward two months, and O’Malley arrives one week before the biggest night of his campaign: the first Democratic debate, which will be held Oct. 13 at the Wynn.
“They’ll be only five of us on that stage, and I will be the only candidate with 15 years of executive experience as a big-city mayor and as a governor,” he told reporters after this meeting.
Expect a different debate from the two GOP clashes, he says.
“Our vision of America is much different than that very exclusive version that we heard from the Republican candidates,” he says. “So you’re going to see, I think in our debates, a much greater focus on the issues that matter most to people as they try to do right by their kids.”
O’Malley is progressive, and proudly so, leaning more toward the Democratic neighborhood inhabited by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. O’Malley rattles off his accomplishments, not only as mayor of Baltimore, but governor of Maryland, “not only talking about progressive goals, but actually achieving things like comprehensive gun safety legislation, raising a living wage, raising the minimum wage, making our public schools the best in the country, and making college more affordable,” he says. . .
“We are focused on these early states, not unlike people whose names you’ve never heard of, like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.”
We know what happened to them. Just what Martin O’Malley wants to happen to him.
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