Posted on 01/09/2008 4:19:34 PM PST by I'll be your Huckleberry
Just got this reply from the state GOP:
E-mail message
From:JKaiser@nevadagop.org(Jackie Kaiser)
Date: Wed, Jan 9, 2008, 11:51pm To: Huck
Subject: RE: Volunteer
Sorry, Huck, I did not notice the northern Nevada address.
I will be in touch when we get the dates and times locked in for our northern training.
Jackie Kaiser
Nevada Republican Party
Office: 702-258-9182
Cell: 253-230-5530
Fax: 702-258-9186
-——Original Message-——
From: Huck
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 7:31 PM
To: Jackie Kaiser
Subject: RE: Volunteer
I would certainly love to come to Vegas for either of these meetings.
However, there are bartenders, dealers and cocktail waitresses that are dependent on me to be present and in a generous mood.
Are there any training sessions up here in the frozen north?
Huc
We are digging out from the weekend blizzard, but the mountains are beautiful.
It is impossible to get a feel for how this is going to settle out. My gut tells me that Hunter will do very well, as may Fred - but hard to say.
This will be my first caucus as well.
We will be meeting in the Governor’s mansion, so it should be fun.
This will also be my first time participating in a caucus. It’s odd, in town I see they have a Obama office, signs for Hillery and Edward’s....nothing on the Republican side unless you consider Paul one.
More real-time email:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1951115/posts?page=25
Jackie in the spirit of full disclosure, I feel obliged to mention that I am blogging a real-time report on the Nevada Caucus on the most popular conservative web site on the internet.
I hope that you are familiar with Free Republic, if you are not then welcome aboard.
If you have any objection to my posting the access information to the Nevada GOP, then I will immediately pull those posts. Hope you do not.
xxxxxxxx (Huck)
Know what you mean. Paul has been very active here in CC.
But we are hardcore rednecks in this little burg, I have never been so clueless as to the political climate. This is going to be real interesting.
It may be the whiskey or the sun going down over the Sierras - but this feels like fun......
Huck
I had titled this thread (parenthetically) “Live thread”.
Noticed that you edited that out.
So be it.
However, at some point in time (it is always your call) I would like to request the reinstatement of that nomenclature.
Be it the night of the caucus or any time of your choosing.
However we are here live in Nevada and this is our story - glad to have you along for the ride.
Huck
Jan. 10, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
CAUCUS CHALLENGE: Now it’s Nevada’s turn Culinary union, Berkley make Democratic choices
By MOLLY BALL
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Elections
Culinary union members hold hands during Wednesday’s announcement of presidential candidate Barack Obama as the union’s choice for the Jan. 19 Democratic caucuses.
Photos by John Locher.
Culinary union members cheer Wednesday morning as D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of the union, announces the union’s endorsement of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in Nevada’s Jan. 19 caucuses.
A battle royal for Nevada kicked off Wednesday between the two leading Democratic candidates for president.
With the long-awaited announcement that the powerful Culinary union will back Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the Jan. 19 caucuses stand to pit the state’s biggest engine of organized labor against its Democratic establishment.
Most of the state’s political
elite — now including Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. — are backing New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Local 226, who combines a rabble-rousing zeal with rare political savvy, said Nevada, more than Iowa and New Hampshire, will be the true test of candidates’ appeal to real Americans.
Referring to the diversity that was a major reason Nevada was selected for the first time as an early nominating contest, Taylor said, “I have a lot of respect for all those folks in Iowa and in New Hampshire. But we’re not just Wonder Bread. We’ve got pumpernickel. We’ve got whole wheat. We’ve got rye. That’s America.”
He acknowledged what the union would be up against in a Wednesday morning news conference announcing the 60,000-member Strip workers union’s endorsement.
The event was just as much a raucous rally in the union hall downtown.
“We understand that we’re going against the entire Democratic power structure,” Taylor said. “We understand that. But the last time I looked, it was the people who voted, not them.”
The more than 100 red-shirted workers surrounding Taylor cheered wildly.
Taylor said the union chose Obama because of his unifying message, his background as a community organizer and his support for the union in its recent contract negotiations with several major casino companies.
For her part, Berkley, the five-term congresswoman who represents urban Las Vegas, said she broke with her earlier stance of staying neutral because she owed it to her constituents to tell them who she supported, and she believed Clinton was the best candidate on issues important to Nevadans.
Berkley joins such prominent Nevada Democrats as Rory Reid and Chris Giunchigliani, both Clark County commissioners; state Senate Minority Leader and former gubernatorial nominee Dina Titus; Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, and dozens more legislators, city officials and community leaders who are supporting Clinton.
Clinton surprised herself, Obama, the pollsters and the conventional wisdom with a narrow win in New Hampshire after losing to Obama in Iowa.
She was wasting no time moving on to the Silver State, announcing Wednesday that she will host events in Las Vegas today.
With Clinton and Obama looking for a best-two-out-of-three win, it’s now guaranteed that there will be a vigorous fight for Nevada over the next nine days.
Obama is scheduled to hit Las Vegas on Friday for a rally with the Culinary union and a town hall at Del Sol High School. The latter event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required; call (702) 253-2008 for information on the 5 p.m. meeting.
The campaign of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is not giving up, despite a distant third-place finish in New Hampshire. But Edwards appears to be focusing more on South Carolina, where Democrats vote after Nevada.
Still, Edwards’ campaign here continues to be active on the ground and has the support of labor unions with nearly 30,000 members, whom it claims will be better prepared than Obama’s union supporters because they have already spent weeks or months learning why they should support Edwards and how the complicated caucus process works.
One campaign that won’t make it back to Nevada is that of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is expected to announce today that he is quitting the race, according to media reports.
Richardson spent the most time of any candidate in Nevada and had hoped to tap regional and Hispanic appeal here, but he couldn’t pull more than 5 percent of the vote in Iowa or New Hampshire.
The push for Nevada also is to include a Democratic debate broadcast on MSNBC, moderated by Brian Williams and Tim Russert, scheduled for Tuesday.
Also on Wednesday, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., rolled out a new spot that is to run on local radio and television, encouraging Democrats and Republicans alike to get out and caucus.
In the ad, a casually dressed Reid urges Nevadans “to let them hear your voice and be part of the change America needs.”
In stark contrast to the Democratic frenzy now descending on Nevada, the Republicans are focused on Michigan, South Carolina and Florida.
Unlike the Democrats, the GOP candidates are participating in Tuesday’s Michigan primary, and their South Carolina primary is on the same day as the Nevada caucuses.
Democrats have their South Carolina caucus a week later, Jan. 26, before both parties move on to the Jan. 29 Florida primaries and the avalanche of states that vote on Feb. 5.
David Damore, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the Democratic race here will come down to which political machine, Culinary’s or Clinton’s, can turn out more voters to participate in a new and mystifying process.
Voter turnout estimates for the caucuses have ranged from 30,000 to 100,000, which would represent about a quarter of the state’s registered Democrats.
Damore said there is no doubt that Culinary is exceptionally well organized politically, and the union will be adding its efforts to the Obama campaign’s already robust grass-roots work.
“But Culinary’s influence thus far has been limited to local races,” he said. “They haven’t played kingmaker really statewide, let alone in a presidential race.”
In addition, Damore said, union members, having met all the candidates, may have their own preferences that contradict their leadership’s. Edwards spouts the most pro-union rhetoric, while Clinton is popular among Hispanics, who make up 60 percent of union membership.
On the other hand, Damore said, “the Democratic establishment hasn’t delivered an important race in this state in a long time.”
Clinton’s campaign claims each of its endorsers comes with a loyal and organized constituency and isn’t just a name; the caucus will test that claim.
All the major Democratic candidates, including those now gone from the race, had addressed Culinary members multiple times, in gatherings large and small.
Taylor on Wednesday wouldn’t say how many union members were eligible to vote, were registered to vote or were Democrats.
“A lot, and a lot, and you’ll see them on the 19th,” he said.
In addition to Culinary, which endorsed in tandem with its parent international union, Unite Here, Obama on Tuesday got the nod of the 17,500-member Service Employees International Union in Nevada.
Clinton is not without her own union support. Her biggest labor ally nationally is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which deployed more than 300 workers and bought large amounts of television, radio and mail advertising on Clinton’s behalf in Iowa.
The union’s national political director, Larry Scanlon, said he is arriving in Nevada on Friday and plans to add staff gradually to the 35 already here, reaching 100 workers by caucus time.
He is prohibited by law from coordinating with the advertising buyers but said they could be expected to be active here as well.
Polls have shown Clinton with big leads in Nevada, but none have been done for a month and a half.
National political analyst Jennifer Duffy of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Nevada’s importance to the Democratic race will be borne out by how much time the candidates spend in the state.
It’s pretty clear the Republicans will spend little to none, but their caucus will still happen and somebody must win it, she noted.
Duffy pointed to Wyoming, whose Jan. 5 Republican nominating convention snuck up on even very tuned-in politicos nationally.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose second-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire were seen as a cumulative severe blow, scored a landslide win, allowing him to claim a single “gold” alongside his two “silvers.”
So, even though it wasn’t hotly contested and no candidates were there, Wyoming is significant in retrospect, she said.
“I went to his debate party Saturday night in Manchester,” Duffy said. “He’d just had this debate where he really got kicked around, but did he talk about that? No, he talked about Wyoming.”
Romney’s supporters, she said, “were really excited about Wyoming. It was a great motivator for him, and it will be a great motivator for whoever wins Nevada.”
Oh well, I’ll sit down with a Chardonnay and watch anyways. I’ll drive my husband and kids nuts when I start yelling at the television.
Teachers Sue to Block Hotel Workers’ Union Vote in Nevada Caucus
By STEVE FRIESS
Published: January 12, 2008
LAS VEGAS — Nevada’s state teachers union and six Las Vegas area residents filed a lawsuit late Friday that could make it harder for many members of the state’s huge hotel workers union to vote in the hotly contested Jan. 19 Democratic caucus in Nevada.
The 13-page lawsuit in federal district court here comes two days after the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Nevada endorsed Senator Barack Obama, a blow to Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama addressed the Culinary Union at their hall earlier Friday.
The lawsuit argues that the Nevada Democratic Party’s decision, decided late last year, to create at-large precincts inside nine Las Vegas resorts on caucus day violates the state’s election laws and creates a system in which voters at the at-large precincts can elect more delegates than voters at other precincts. The lawsuit employs a complex mathematical formula to show that voters at the other 1,754 precincts would have less influence with their votes.
The at-large precincts are being established because thousands of hotel workers cannot leave work to participate in the midday caucuses in their home precincts. The Nevada State Education Association has said it would not endorse any Democrat, but some of its top officials have endorsed Mrs. Clinton. The association’s deputy executive director, Debbie Cahill, for instance, was a founding member of Senator Clinton’s Nevada Women’s Leadership Council.
Nobody from the either union could be reached for comment late Friday. One plaintiff, Vicky Birkhead of North Las Vegas referred questions to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, who also could not be reached.
“This could shut down those precincts in the casinos and keep culinary members from voting,” said Jon Ralston, a political pundit with The Las Vegas Sun, who broke the story on his blog. Mr.
Ralston said it is unclear whether there are ties between the lawsuit and the Clinton campaign but, he predicted, “Even if they’re
Hillary supporters, the campaign’s going to say they had nothing to do with it.It is unclear when the court will hear the matter.
Ron Paul and Obama are flooding the radio with ads. No sign of the others.
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: January 13, 2008
With Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama eager to win the Democratic caucuses in Nevada next Saturday, labor unions backing Mr. Obama are in a surprisingly intense, expensive fight with those supporting Mrs. Clinton.
Several pro-Clinton labor unions with small memberships in Nevada have thrown major resources into the state to counter pro-Obama unions with big memberships there. -———
This has caused leaders of the pro-Obama unions to complain that one pro-Clinton union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is bumping against the limits of the law by sending nearly 100 paid employees to Nevada to mobilize its roughly 3,000 members in the state.
Full NY Times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/us/politics/13nevada.html?ref=us
January 13, 2008
Nevada and the caucus: Be careful what you wish for
Kirk Caraway
Nevada Appeal News Service
January 13, 2008, 4:01 AM
When Nevada Sen. Harry Reid maneuvered his state into the early presidential primary season, there were cheers from those weary of Iowa and New Hampshire getting to pick the presidential candidates every four years.
The move sandwiched Nevada between the two traditional early states. But then Iowa and New Hampshire had their collective hissy fits and moved their contests up even earlier. So much for change.
After an initial rush, the Democratic candidates cut back on their visits to the Silver State to concentrate on Iowa and New Hampshire. The Republican caucus, which is more like a straw poll, never caught on. Most of that side’s candidates didn’t bother to visit at all. It looked like the Nevada caucus was going to be one big fizzle.
Six days changed all that.
For the Democrats, what six months ago appeared like an anointment of Hillary Clinton suddenly morphed into a sweep by Barack Obama that was launched in Iowa. There was talk that, trailing badly in the New Hampshire polls, Clinton might even drop out before the Nevada Caucus as the Obama Express looked unstoppable.
But then Hillary won New Hampshire, and now we have a dead heat. And because of the date switching, there is a week and a half for the candidates to fight over Nevada and claim momentum going into Super Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5. There are even some signs Republicans might get interested in Nevada after they duke it out in Michigan on Tuesday.
Be careful what you ask for, Nevada.
Besides the chance to get some face time with the presidential candidates, we are now getting the television commercials, the mailers and the phone calls.
Prepare for the canvassers coming to your door. The top Democratic candidates had nearly 10,000 campaign workers in Iowa. Who knows how many they will mobilize to knock on doors in Nevada.
Fortunately, the campaigning in Nevada is pretty clean so far. But with the stakes so high, the urge to go on the attack will be tremendous.
Nevada was supposed to give voice to western issues. Too bad the only western candidate on the Democratic side, Bill Richardson, has dropped out already. So the only western issues that will get aired are the required pander on stopping the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, and immigration.
And since the Republicans haven’t really showed up to debate which one of them will deport more people, immigration isn’t getting much attention.
The Nevada caucus system would seem to favor establishment candidates like Sen. Clinton. Unlike Iowa, independents have to register as Democrats to participate. Former Sen. John Edwards would seem to have an edge with the big labor unions, except that Obama was able to sweep in and capture their support last week.
It looks like this will be a real shootout.
What may make Nevada really unpredictable is the fact there has never been a caucus like this before. With no history to go on, pollsters haven’t a clue about how to judge the turnout, or which candidate will be able to get their supporters to participate.
If you think the New Hampshire polls were bad, any poll done in Nevada for this caucus is probably not any better than a wild guess.
It could be that being thrust into the spotlight for the first time will drive more Nevadans to show up. But the confusion over how caucuses work may also scare people away.
Can Nevada give one of the candidates the momentum to win it all? Or will the result lead to an even more fractured picture? Either way, it will be Nevada’s day in the sun. She better enjoy it, because I doubt it will come around again anytime soon.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080113/OPINION/234334379
“He has a little following up here and it is bizarre.”
Interesting, his following in Las Vegas is bizarre as well. Maybe that’s a national thing for Paul.
Glad to hear Thompson is looking good up north...I am choosing between he and Romney down here in Vegas.
It is fun watching the dems tear themselves apart.
I was even polled by Obama yesterday. Apparently they were not give a list of just Democrats to call.
Anyone else push polled by Huckabee?
Not more than an hour ago!
I could NOT pick Duncan Hunter. The choices were Huckabee, Romney,Rudy,and McNuts.
I just listened to the computer go on and on about how bad Romney was, as I apparently could not pick Fred. Here I thought Huckabee was against push polling. Interesting...
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