Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Weekend energizes Democrats

Many top state Democrats were left scratching their heads on election night in 2002, when Republicans trounced them at the polls.

"I'm going to tell you it was a long night," said Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, who was the chairman of the state party. "And I don't want to have to go through anything like that again."

Nevada Democrats lost four Assembly seats, two congressional races and all six of the state's top offices.

The day after the election, discouraged party leaders phoned each other and organized small meetings to plot a comeback in 2004. And while they say Nevada's Democratic Party is now more organized, some officials are also seeing opportunity for the coming election in the backlash against President Bush.

"I've been involved in politics all my adult life, and I've never seen a crowd like this," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at the Clark County caucus Saturday, where thousands of people chanted "No More Bush!" and the hot-ticket item of the day was a T-shirt that read "A.B.B." -- "Anybody But Bush."

"People are mad," 61-year-old Las Vegas resident Lysenda Kirkberg said Saturday while standing in a line at the caucus to meet Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Even top Democrats were surprised by the thousands of people who turned out for the caucus and a Friday night rally for Kerry. But can they keep up the momentum through November?

"The turnout of Democrats today bodes very well for us all up and down the ticket," Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said Saturday. "I think we've got them on the ropes."

Still, Titus doesn't see a big shakeup in state politics this election. Titus said Democrats hope to win Nevada for Kerry, maintain the majority in the state Assembly and pick up a seat in the Senate this November.

State Republicans agree that 2004 will be a tough presidential race in Nevada, but they say they're laying the groundwork to draw out their own party faithful in November.

"The energy around here at the state office and the county office is normally the energy you see in September in an election year, and we're seeing it in February," Chris Carr, executive director of the Nevada Republican Party, said.

A close presidential election actually will help local and statewide Republican candidates, Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said. Bush loyalists will be more likely to show at the polls to support the president, he said.

Hettrick pointed to several reasons he said Republicans will vote this election year, including the double-dipping scandals, the related debate over whether public employees should be able to serve in the Legislature and the Nevada Supreme Court decision that preceded last summer's historic tax increases.

Stung by the tax increases, Republicans will ensure that their state leaders won't be poised to pass more taxes in the next session, Hettrick said.

"I just think the issues play for us," Hettrick said. "I think the national issues will play reasonably well for us, the Supreme Court issues will play for us. I just feel we have a lot of good opportunities."

Republicans "have better than a 50-50 chance" to gain seats in the state Assembly, which Democrats now control by a 23-19 margin, Hettrick said.

"There's a lot of talk about public employees, and clearly the Democrats have the bulk of those," Hettrick said. "There's a lot of talk about the double-dipping, and again the only ones involved thus far have been the Democratic members.

"In the end, I think there's going to be a significant dissatisfaction with taxes as people see them kicking in."

Ted Jelen, a political science professor at UNLV, said he expects Republicans to focus on the tax increases which were passed in the last session.

"If I were running the Bush campaign in the state, I would be Johnny One Note about taxes," Jelen said.

Despite any statewide initiatives that might go to the ballot, Jelen said, the focus will be on the presidential election and the U.S. Senate race, for which Reid already has banked $4.3 million.

"Because it's the presidential year, the marginal effect of ballot initiatives is probably not going to be that important in terms of turnout," Jelen said. "If this were 2006, I would have a different answer."

Voter turnout is key in Nevada, where Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats. In December the number of registered Republicans stood at 376,386, compared with 367,943 registered Democrats.

Low turnout was the killer for Democrats in 2002, when many Republicans were energized to vote for the state's constitutional amendment that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. Democrats, said Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, were "complacent."

This year both parties are working hard to recruit volunteers who will work to get out the vote. They also will be trying to lure the state's 139,475 nonpartisan voters.

That's where some say Kerry can step in. When introducing Kerry at Friday's rally, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., told Kerry that her district is the fastest-growing in the nation, with growing populations of veterans, seniors and "working men and women."

After the rally Kerry said he hopes to capture the vote of Nevada's seniors and veterans from both parties.

Senior voters should be upset about Bush's prescription drug plan and his idea to privatize Social Security, Kerry said. Veterans, he said, should vote for him because he would support the Veterans Affairs Department. Kerry also has voted against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and said Friday that, as president, he would look at alternatives to warehousing all of the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada.

"I hope to win Nevada," Kerry said. "I can tell you I'll be back."

He is not likely to be the only national political figure to come. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie was in town last week and first lady Laura Bush is scheduled to visit Advanced Technologies Academy on Thursday.

It may be premature to guess how many Republicans and Democrats will turn out at the polls in November. But Reid, who is facing his own re-election this year, said the enthusiasm among Democrats for the presidential election can only improve Democratic chances at local and statewide posts.

"It's sure not going to hurt, is it?"

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