Unite-HERE ad: "Hillary Clinton does not respect our people." - "Hillary Clinton is shameless."

[jefferson_dem]

Unite-HERE ad: "Hillary Clinton does not respect our people."

The radio ad aired by one of Obama's labor allies re-injects ethnicity into the contest in sharp terms.

"Hillary Clinton does not respect our people," the ad says, in Spanish (original and Clinton campaign translation after the jump), referring to the lawsuit that failed today to shut down special caucus sites on Las Vegas's strip. "Hillary Clinton is shameless."

"Senator Obama is defending our right to vote. Senator Obama wants our votes. He respects our votes, our community, and our people. Senator Obama’s campaign slogan is 'Si Se Puede'. Vote for a president who respects us, and who respects our right to vote," the ad says, according to a transcript provided by the Clinton campaign and confirmed in part by a union official.

On a conference call arranged by the Clinton campaign, two of her supporters denounced the spot and demanded that Obama distance himself from it. They also said the Clinton campaign had no involvement in the lawsuit, which was filed by Clinton supporters and defended by Bill Clinton.

"It’s pathetic and it's sad and it's unfortunate that they have to stoop so low," said Dolores Huerte, a longtime Hispanic labor leader who supports Clinton. She said she had never met Obama in her years of working on Hispanic causes, and suggested the ad was prompted by his lack of Hispanic support.

"I have yet to find even one worker – a Latino worker – who is supporting Barack Obama," she said.

The political director for Unite-HERE, Tom Snyder, confirmed a portion of the transcript, and defended the decision to run it.

"We're doing this because forces allied with her campaign are trying to keep our members out of voting through this lawsuit, which neither Senator Clinton nor former President Clinton have denounced," he said.

A spokesman for Obama, Bill Burton, did not condemn the ad or the spending specifically, but instead attacked Clinton.

"Senator Obama believes, and has said clearly, that campaigns should fund themselves and discourages supporters from spending outside the campaign," he said, and echoed the charges in the ad. "Coming from a campaign that is repeatedly launching absolutely false attacks against Senator Obama, it takes some chutzpah. The facts is their camp clearly would like to have worker's voices silences and they need to live with that unfortunate position."

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/UniteHERE_ad_Hillary_Clinton_does_not_respect_our_people.html