I want to play a game with you, like an analogy game.

When I called up Stephen Greenhouse, the former labor reporter over at the New York Times,

I wanted him to explain something to me.

I want you to fill in the blank here.

The culinary union is to Nevada as what is to what?

As to what the New England Patriots have been to NFL.

That might not be fair.

I wanted Stephen to explain exactly what Nevada's culinary union has to do with the Democratic caucuses

that are set to wrap up over the weekend. What Google is to internet search might be a better

way. I mean, they're the most, by far the most powerful. What Ms. McConnell is to the Senate,

you know, just totally dominant. I'm trying to think, but it would be, I hate using Mitch McConnell.

So, um, basically you're saying this union is like a fundamental part of Nevada's infrastructure

and not just a fundamental part, but like the engine of that infrastructure.

Right.

I mean, so, you know, I quote the Washington Post saying, the culinary is, quote,

the dominant political force in the state, unquote. I mean, it is the 800-pound political

gorilla. When Stephen says the culinary is an 800-pound gorilla, he means that in the last election

cycle, they pushed for Nevada to elect its first Democratic governor in 20 years.

He's talking about how this state was the only state to flip a Republican Senate seat blue

in 2018.

And that the senator that got elected, she was a member of the culinary.

For the last week, what this union is saying, or not saying, has been relentlessly picked apart as politicos try to predict the future in a Democratic primary where the field of candidates has remained stubbornly large.

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