"Nevada Savors Its Place as Maker of Momentum"

NY Times:

LAS VEGAS — Scores of college students fanned out in neighborhoods across this city Wednesday, phone banks buzzed with newly minted volunteers and endorsements were proffered as the Democratic presidential candidates ratcheted up the volume in this once-quiet caucus state.

Next in line on the Democratic calendar, Nevada was vaulted overnight into the position of breaking a tie, at least for now, after the victory of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. The campaigns of Mrs. Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, who won the Iowa caucuses last week, seemed poised for a sanguinary struggle in the Jan. 19 caucuses, and Mr. Obama was scheduled to arrive here on Friday.

The Clinton and Obama camps rushed in volunteers and staff members from Iowa, furiously opened new field offices and saturated the airwaves with radio advertisements in Spanish and television spots promoting their health care plans.

For Mrs. Clinton, efforts on her behalf in Nevada intensified last week after her third-place finish in Iowa. Campaign staff members here impressed upon volunteers that they were direly needed. With her victory in New Hampshire, Mrs. Clinton, who long ago collected the institutional support of her party here — and until recently enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls — is now seeking to build on her newfound momentum.

“We always knew Nevada would be important as the first Western state,” said Hilarie Grey, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton here. “We can be the state that swings the momentum in an entirely different way.”

Mr. Obama won an endorsement Wednesday morning from the highly influential Culinary Workers Union local at a raucous news conference here in Las Vegas, where more than 100 members began chanting and yelling at what quickly became an Obama rally.

After praising the other Democrats for fighting for “the Las Vegas dream,” D. Taylor, the secretary and treasurer of the union and its public face, gave the nod to Mr. Obama.

Mr. Taylor celebrated something that Nevada residents have enjoyed for months, candidates who actually show up in the state. “It’s been exciting,” he said. “For the first time I know of in Nevada, dishwashers, cooks, housekeepers, cocktail servers, bartenders from all different walks of life” had access to candidates.

The union, which has about 60,000 members, is extremely influential in the Democratic stronghold of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and hopes to play a major role in the race, where Mrs. Clinton has had the edge for months. Alluding to Nevada’s racial diversity in relation to Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Taylor said, “We’re not just white bread here; we got pumpernickel, we’ve got whole wheat and we’ve got rye.”

Mr. Obama is counting on a highly organized cadre of enthusiastic supporters — he has nearly double the number of field offices of any other candidate — to edge him toward another victory.

In North Las Vegas on Wednesday, an Obama field office was buzzing with activities and people came in from the streets looking for yard signs and T-shirts. (“Tell Mama Vote Obama” remained on the wall, and there was not a sign for the taking.)

“Senator Obama has invested heavily into this state,” said Shannon Gilson, a spokeswoman for his campaign here. “We aren’t taking anything for granted.”

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, perhaps trying to distract from the powerful union endorsement, made much hay Wednesday morning of its endorsement by Representative Shelley Berkley, whose Congressional district encompasses Las Vegas.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, and Mrs. Clinton, of New York, have ventured into parts of Nevada that have traditionally shunned Democrats, like Elko in the north. Statewide, Mr. Obama has 11 offices total, and Mrs. Clinton has 6, including two she opened since the New Year here.

The efforts are boisterous extensions of what the Clinton and Obama campaigns have been quietly building as the rest of the nation kept its eyes on Iowa and New Hampshire.

Nevada, chosen by the Democratic Party to hold an early contest long before numerous other states decided to move their primaries to Feb. 5, has been largely overshadowed by Iowa, New Hampshire and, to a lesser degree, South Carolina.

(Republicans also have caucuses here on Jan. 19, but they are nonbinding and have been largely ignored by all but Mitt Romney and Representative Ron Paul.)

In Nevada candidates will find a booming state with a population far more concerned with infrastructure and traffic than farm subsidies and family values, and one bedeviled by some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

Health care, the theme of advertising by both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, is the issue of the day here, along with the Iraq war. John Edwards, who pulled workers out of the state early in the campaign, has had a harder time getting traction.

“There are no real social services here,” said David Damore, a political scientist at the University of Nevada. “So to come here and tell people they need to care about the poor is not a winning strategy.”

Volunteers have been clocking phone banks for multiple shifts a day, canvassing neighborhoods not only to ferret out potential voters, but also to educate people on how a caucus works. While only about 9,000 people participated in the 2004 caucuses, the state’s Democratic Party is bracing for far higher numbers.

The Democrats are heavily concentrated in Clark County, with much of the rest of the state a Republican stronghold. But in recent months, Democratic voter registration has passed that of Republicans, and Nevada is a genuine swing state.

“The political dynamic is closer to New Hampshire than Iowa,” Dr. Damore said. “It is a place that is in transition from Old West, libertarian, small-state mind-set to ‘Hey, we are a major player,’ with gaming and politics. The Democrats have made the interior West the place to win, and this is a winnable state.”

Volunteers appear tireless. On Tuesday, Olivia Brice, a Clinton volunteer, stared intently at Eric Smith as if Ms. Brice could hypnotize him into ceasing his tirade against her candidate.

“I have nothing against her except for her last name,” said Mr. Smith, an unemployed casino worker, as he lectured Ms. Brice, one of scores of college students and other campaign volunteers who have poured into Nevada in recent weeks, giving up holidays to campaign.

A woman, a potential Clinton supporter who crouched nervously behind her half-opened front door, said, “I just hear everybody going with Barack.”

Ms. Brice replied: “That’s not true, Vivian. The only thing that matters is what is happening here in Nevada.”

Barack Obama