Political notebook: Democratic caucus pushes registration in West Las Vegas

Erin Neff

Friday, July 19, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

A simpler sign is emerging from the election-year clutter lining Martin Luther King Boulevard in West Las Vegas: "Exercise your power."

So often the message of voting is lost in the "vote for me" mania.

But the Democratic Caucus for Urban Development is focused on the meaning of voting, by registering residents of the predominantly black area to vote.

Uri Clinton, a local attorney and chairman of the caucus, said the goal is to register as many residents as possible before this fall's election -- preferably with the Democratic Party, he said.

With the Aug. 3 voter registration deadline for the primary rapidly approaching, Clinton said he thinks his caucus will make a difference this fall in the 1st Congressional District race.

"We didn't want people to get confused that an African-American is running," Clinton said, referring to GOP candidate Lynette Boggs McDonald.

Boggs McDonald has been courting black Democrats in West Las Vegas to help her campaign against Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

Clinton called that "race-baiting," and said Berkley is the better candidate on health care, job development and education issues important in the area.

Clinton ran unsuccessfully against state Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, for Neal's in 2000. No surprise Clinton is backing Berkley. Neal, a black Democrat, is backing Boggs McDonald.

The caucus meets the second Wednesday of every month at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center and holds voter registration drives each weekend. It can be reached at 387-2601.

Doom and gloom

Not only are the doctors and lawyers far apart in their medical malpractice negotiations, but lawmakers are also scrapping about the upcoming special session.

Some Republican lawmakers are mad that Gov. Kenny Guinn has sought an opinion from the attorney general's office saying that he can stop the session at any time. The Legislature thinks that a separation-of-power argument offered by the Legislative Counsel Bureau gives them the right to determine when the session will end.

The session's start date also created some grumblings. Originally, Guinn wanted to start it on July 31, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, had vacation scheduled in August and wanted the session to start sooner.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, had officially invited each of the insurance companies doing business in Nevada to a hearing on July 29 before her interim legislative committee studying the crisis. She had to give them 45 days notice.

But Raggio's vacation won, and Guinn and lawmakers are now trying to squeeze in Buckley's hearing up in Carson City before the special session begins.

Too bad for Raggio that he got his way because the Senate's majority whip, Maurice Washington, is being arraigned on July 29. Washington, R-Sparks, is charged with not providing industrial insurance coverage to workers at his charter school.

Grist for the mill

Shhh. People are talking.

The Las Vegas rumor mill has reached a point where politicians believe nothing -- not even their family's health -- is immune from the gossipy needs of vicious media.

Gov. Kenny Guinn acknowledged last week that he wanted to be the one to officially announce news of his prostate cancer before "The Buzz" started to reach citizens.

On Wednesday, the city of Las Vegas public information office faxed a letter from City Councilman Michael McDonald announcing his mother, Doris, has breast cancer.

"I would like to clarify my mother's current health condition, and correct any potential rumors that have apparently been circulating," McDonald wrote.