State Democrats prepare for convention

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 8:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada Democrats are heading east this weekend for the Democratic National Convention that kicks off Monday in Boston.

The four-day convention is expected to be a whirlwind of meetings, parties and speeches culminating Thursday with the Democratic party's official nomination of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards to run for president and vice president.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is scheduled to address the convention on Wednesday evening before Edwards accepts his nomination.

Rep. Shelley Berkley will head the 32-member delegation from Nevada, which has been deemed a battleground state in this election.

Berkley helped draft the party's platform, an outline of positions on issues, set to be approved at the convention. The latest version contains the line: "We will protect Nevada and its communities from the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain which has not been proven to be safe by sound science."

Nevada's"battleground" designation stems from the state's close election results from the 2000 presidential race, said Jon Summers, the state Democratic Party communications director. Former Vice President Al Gore lost by 21,000 votes, or 3.5 percentage points, in Nevada to current President George W. Bush, Summers said. A battleground state is any state with a difference of less than 5 percentage points.

"It is very, very close," Summers said. "We can go either way."

The state has one more electoral vote in this election and a lot of new residents that did not vote in Nevada last time.

Meetings and get-out-the-vote training during the convention are geared to get people to the polls -- and get them to vote for Kerry and Edwards.

"This will provide a continuation of the momentum experienced by the state caucus," said Steven Horsford, Nevada's National Democratic Party Committeeman who will be attending the convention. "John Kerry and John Edwards will be able to distinguish themselves."

He said there will be a lot of talk on voter registration and ways to combat voter apathy throughout the convention to make sure that Nevada is in the "win column" for the Kerry-Edwards campaign come election night on Nov. 2.

The state party elected the delegates during the state's convention in April, Summers said. The delegates had to be selected at local caucuses and precinct meetings before getting their spot at the convention. Delegates pay their own way.

Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkison Gates, a superdelegate who is also the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus, will attend a slew of meetings and parties, including some in her honor, as well as make speeches throughout the convention, she said.

Daniel Hinkley of Stonewall Democratic Club of Southern Nevada said he wants to be in the convention hall as much as he can to "soak up all of the Kerry magic."

Meanwhile, Nevada Republicans will travel to New York in late August for their party's convention where Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will accept the party's nomination.