Nevada update

by Don Wheeler

Monday, January 14, 2008

New Poll: Democratic race in Nevada a dead heat

A new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a neck-and-neck three-way race among Democrats for Saturday's caucus. On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain has taken his first lead in Nevada of the election season, and Mitt Romney, who has been working Nevada harder than any other Republican, is trailing in fourth place.

A look at the top line results (more will be posted later this morning):

Barack Obama: 32 percent
Hillary Clinton: 30 percent
John Edwards: 27 percent

John McCain: 22 percent
Rudy Giuliani: 18 percent
Mike Huckabee: 16 percent
Mitt Romney: 15 percent
Fred Thompson: 11 percent
Ron Paul: 6 percent
Duncan Hunter: 1 percent

The poll was conducted of 500 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 500 likely Republican caucus-goers statewide by Maryland-based Research 2000. The margin of error is 4.5 percent.

posted by Anjeanette Damon at 7:06 AM

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Add to the mix a caucus system much less straightforward than Iowa's.

Nevada has created at-large caucuses to enfranchise casino workers (only in Las Vegas), but gives undue weight to these entities - according to a lawsuit now pending in the Nevada court system.

What's indisputable is that other Saturday workers have no such ability to participate in the caucuses. It's hard to see how this can not be ruled a discriminatory practice.

Here's link to the complaint:

http://vegaspundit.typepad.com/vegas_pundit/files/filed_complaint.pdf

Here's the take from ABC's News blog:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/tough-guy-pol-1.html

This is how it strikes me. The culinary workers endorsement of Obama certainly seems to have triggered the suit, and the plaintiffs are avowed Clinton supporters. Oddly, it is John Edwards who suffered most from the endorsement - the campaign has strong support among the rank and file members and felt confident of receiving the union endorsement up until recently.

But everyone likes a winner, and when Edwards finished second in Iowa and a distant third in New Hampshire, it's not much of a stretch to think that the union leadership started reading the tea leaves.

From another angle, this looks like another skirmish in what is shaping up to be an ongoing food fight between the Clinton and Obama camps. I wonder if the public will grow tired of this stuff and realize there is another choice.

One can only hope.