By wplog

Published Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 | 9:06 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:14 p.m.

Bogged down with business in Washington, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid offered some pre-debate analysis in an early-morning interview with the Sun.

The Senate Majority Leader deviated little from the talking points he delivered Tuesday in a conference call with Western reporters.

On tonight's CNN debate in Las Vegas: "This debate indicates the (Democratic National Committee) did the right thing by changing a process that was so unfair to the American people. There's a recognition that if you want to be president the road to the White House runs through Las Vegas and the West."

He said the White House aspirants have beedn doing a good job addressing Nevada's issues, noting that the West, while having parochial concerns, tracks with much of the country on Iraq and health care. The drought in the Southeast, he said, will force candidates to talk about water stewardship on a national level, which in turn will help the parched Southwest.

But the most interesting part of the call came when I asked him about something he said in that conference call the other day. On Tuesday, after bashing Iowa (some people, no diversity) and New Hampshire (no people, no diversity), Reid said although adding Nevada and South Carolina to the mix of early nomination contests had injected much-needed diversity to the process, it had not closed down the power of the two traditional early-voting states.

"Next time we have an election four years from now we may need to look at a regional primary system," Reid said on Tuesday.

He seemed to be acknowledging the chaos surrounding the presidential nomination process this cycle, as state after state has jockeyed for position — against the wishes of the DNC. Indeed, both parties have struggled to maintain control of a process that clearly is off the tracks. On the Democratic side, the state parties holding the first four contests exacted a promise from the candidates not to campaign in other states more influence by moving up. The DNC then moved to punish states like Florida that break the rules, refusing to seat the state‚s delegates.

(Check out this opinion piece over at Salon.com for an accounting of the chaos.)

Reid's statement about a regional primary system though is shocking for Nevada Democrats, who had hoped to prove their meddle with an early caucus this time around so that it becomes a fixture in the nomination process. Reid expanded on his comment this morning:

"We know Iowa and New Hampshire's position has been significantly weakened, not just because of Nevada and South Carolina, but because of other states moving up their contests as well. What I said the other day was that I'm sure we're going to take a look at different ways of doing this in the future. Whatever happens, I hope we can put more integrity in the process by spacing out the contests instead of cramming them all together. I think this is something Congress will look at in the next four years."

Reid's spokesman Jon Summers added: "There is a need to provide stability to the nomination system, but Sen. Reid will fight to protect Nevada's position as an early-caucus state."

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