Forget Hillary vs. Obama. There’s another question in the Democratic
presidential race: Does what happens in Vegas really stay there, or can Sin
City set the course for the nation? Nevada has a new prominence in deciding
the party’s next nominee. It will hold an early caucus January 19, 2008,
sandwiched between Iowa and New Hampshire. The prized position is an attempt
to bring more diverse voices into determining the Democratic candidate
beyond the two overwhelmingly white, rural states that have traditionally
dominated the process.The hope is that a Western state with a large
population of Hispanics and union workers will bring fresh issues to the
debate. “I’ve always felt that the system we have of choosing our president
has been very cockeyed,” said incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,
the state’s top Democrat. Nevada “will give the American people a better
idea of what a candidate should be for and against.” That doesn’t mean
candidates should be for gambling and against limits on prostitution. Nevada
may be famous for some of the nation’s most liberal entertainment laws, but
state leaders are more interested in promoting other, less sexy political
concerns. Those include water rights, nuclear waste disposal, health care,
education and maintaining military installations. Local activists say they
don’t expect to see the candidates on the Strip, except maybe to hold
fundraisers in the large meeting rooms or spend the night in the hotels.
However, they can be expected to be asked where they stand on Internet
gaming and betting on collegiate sports, issues important to the local
economy. “You are going to get certain questions about local issues just
like you get questions in Iowa about corn subsidies,” said Democrat Tony
Sanchez, chairman of the committee drafting the caucus rules and overseeing
its operation. “But the thought of, ‘Hey, let’s get a picture of you rolling
the dice’ — that’s not going to happen.” Westward ho The selection of
Nevada is part of an effort to increase Democratic support in the West, once
a bastion of conservatism. Democrats won several statewide elections in the
West last month and the Democratic National Committee is considering holding
its 2008 convention in Denver, Colorado. Reid was the driving force behind
moving up Nevada’s caucus and has a lot at stake in its success.

That will be a big job. Nevada had only 17 caucus sites in 2004 — one per
county — and just 8,500 of the state’s nearly 1 million active registered
voters took part. That was a huge jump from 2000, when fewer than 1,000
participated, and the increase overwhelmed the party and delayed results for
hours.

This time, the party plans to have as many as 1,000 sites, Reid said.

The Nevada Democratic Party hired Jean Hessburg, the former head of the Iowa
Democratic Party who helped oversee the last Iowa caucus, to run the
operation and avoid some of the problems seen in 2004. She will be assisted
by Iowa political veteran Jayson Sime and a trio of media consultants
experienced in presidential politics — Jamal Simmons, Bill Buck and Roger
Salazar.

The question is how much time the candidates will spend in Nevada versus
Iowa and New Hampshire, where they are expected to attend parties in
people’s homes statewide. The candidates will have an incentive to stick to
the Las Vegas area because two-thirds of the voters live in Clark County.
Reno also has a concentration of Democrats, but the rest of the state is
sparsely populated and overwhelmingly Republican.

At stake in the Nevada Democratic caucus voting will be 22 base delegates,
compared to Iowa’s 39 and New Hampshire’s 19.

Labor unions critical
Many Democrats considering a bid have been working Nevada. New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson has visited repeatedly from his nearby home state, and John
Edwards has been courting the state’s labor leaders. The 2004 vice
presidential nominee already has an endorsement from the Laborers’ Local
872.

The labor support will be critical in Nevada because unions will be the most
natural organizations to get voters to the caucus. The largest is the
Culinary Workers Union Local 226, with 60,000 members who serve the drinks,
clean the hotel rooms and cook the food at casinos. Political director Pilar
Weiss said the union has many friends in the race and won’t make an
endorsement until late in the process.

“There is not a favored son or daughter,” she said.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack stopped in Las Vegas on his presidential campaign
announcement tour and Edwards plans to include it on his later this month.
Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Chris Dodd of
Connecticut have also made trips in recent months.

Two top-tier contenders who have not announced — Sens. Hillary Rodham
Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois — have not visited since
Nevada moved up its date.

Can Dems appeal to Nevadans?
It’s too early to gauge what kind of appeal they would have in the swing
state, although former President Clinton made many friends here with his
2000 veto of a bill that would have sent nuclear waste to Nevada’s Yucca
Mountain.

One of Bill Clinton’s fans is Billy Vassiliadis, who created Las Vegas’
successful “What happens here, stays here” marketing campaign and a slick
brochure and video that helped convince Democrats to bless Nevada’s early
caucus.

Vassiliadis has a picture of himself with Obama hanging in his office and
once held a fundraiser for Edwards at his chic headquarters. He said he
wants to stay neutral in the presidential primary, but paused when asked
what he would do if the former president asked him to support his wife.

“There’s almost nothing Bill Clinton couldn’t ask me for,” Vassiliadis said.
“That would be tough.”

Reid said that with so many senators in the race, he will not endorse
anyone. “That would be a little bit foolish for me to do that when I have to
ask them for things here all the time and they have to ask me for things,”
he said in a recent interview.

He said he will ask the gambling industry to support the caucus effort.

“I hope they step up and help with funding some of the things that need to
be funded in this new environment we have there,” Reid said. “And I’m
confident they’ll do that.”

Reid rejects suggestions that associations with legalized gambling could
hurt presidential candidates, noting that numerous states have it.

Frank Schreck, an attorney who has worked for gambling clients and was a
chief fundraiser for Bill Clinton, said the industry is sensitive to
appearances for politicians but will want to know where they stand on issues
important to them.

“It’s in private conversations because you don’t want to embarrass anybody,”
Schreck said.