Nevada’s five electoral votes put Bush over top

Benjamin Grove and Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Perhaps the biggest cheer at the Republican Party's biggest Election Night bash came at 12:39 a.m. today, when television news on a giant viewing screen announced that President Bush had likely won Ohio.

Hugs were shared, tears shed and cell phones passed around. Chants of "four more years" rang out.

At that point, party-goers assumed, the race was over and it was merely a question of Bush picking up a few more states.

Nevada, New Mexico and Iowa were poised to become the state that officially put President Bush over the top.

But in the end Ohio, as many predicted, was the star of the night. Nevada later went for Bush -- to some light cheering at the GOP celebration -- but the president needed an official designation on Ohio to declare victory.

Still, the much-ballyhooed battleground state of Nevada was vitally important to Bush in his electoral college vote tally, several GOP operatives said.

"With an election this close, every swing state was important," Yier Shi, Republican National Committee spokesman, said as the election party dragged on toward dawn.

For the candidates, all the money, time and energy spent in Nevada was a well-made investment, Shi said.

"Ultimately, all of it was worth it if we have a victory," Shi said.

The Republican National Committee's victory party began in the early evening Tuesday and continued past sunrise today, under 125-foot glass ceilings in the swanky atrium of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, just a few blocks from the White House where Bush was watching election returns.

About 4,500, including roughly 1,200 media, buzzed excitedly and cheered as the television results rolled in on a giant projection screen. For much of the evening the channel was turned to Fox News. Several tireless country music acts kept the crowd lively. High-profile guests stepped onstage to rally the troops with brief speeches, including RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, Senate Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Education Secretary Rod Paige, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Even boxing promoter and Bush fan Don King sparked wild applause.

"We can smell victory in the air," King said, with cigar and small U.S. flag in hand.

As the night wore on, the crowd was energized by results that refuted exit polling's false indications of a Kerry victory -- and by the promise of a visit from President Bush, who had wanted to make some kind of victory speech.

But Bush never came. Questions over provisional ballots in Ohio delayed his appearance, which was to come later today. The White House sent chief-of-staff Andrew Card to say the Bush camp was "convinced" Bush had won, even if the president wasn't quite ready to declare it himself.

People in the crowd grew frustrated that Bush, buoyed by victory in Florida, had marched so close to the 270 votes he needed, only to be stopped short because of a relatively few votes in Ohio. They booed when Democrats on the television monitors were mentioned or when left-leaning pundits were interviewed.

Meanwhile, at the Capital Hilton in downtown Washington, boos came up when President Bush appeared on the 9x12-foot television screens at either end of the room at the Democratic National Committee's party.

After Florida went to Bush the mood in the room quickly changed as happy Democrats slowly began to realize their celebrating may have been premature.

As the cheese platters were unwrapped and drinks flowed freely from the open bar early in the evening, there was a sense of hope and "cautious optimism" that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., would take the White House.

About 500 anxious supporters waited, some with Electoral College maps in hand, red and blue markers ready to cross off states as networks called them. Bush had an early lead and one woman wearing Kerry-Edwards stickers filled in California's 55 vote early "just because it makes me feel better."

Stickers and campaign posters covered the ballroom, with the "I voted" sticker being the night's must-have accessory.

The District of Columbia's delegate to the House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton, pumped up the crowd with the District's three electoral votes going to Kerry, thanks to a 90 percent vote for the Democratic presidential ticket.

"Are there any Democrats in the house?" Norton said, drawing deafening applause and cheers.

DNC Secretary Alice Travis Germond thanked the crowd for the hard work during the campaign and reminded audience members that beyond their support for Kerry and Edwards, they helped register thousands of new voters.

The crowd went crazy when Kerry took Pennsylvania raising beer bottles and wine glasses into the air. Illinois went for Kerry and rising Democratic star Barack Obama won his Senate seat.

But as the last chunk of cheddar was eaten and the open bar turned into a cash bar, there were more red states and blue states.

Shouts of "C'mon John" and depressed looks took over as the partly intoxicated crowd started to realize it was now about Ohio more than ever.

North Carolina, Edwards' home state, went for Bush, Nebraska went for Bush, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming all went into the Bush column. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was neck and neck with former Rep. John Thune, a Republican, but Daschle eventually lost the race.

The party ended about 1:30 a.m. with no clear Electoral College winner yet and several states, including Nevada had not been called. Around the same time, the Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill released a statement saying, "The vote count in Ohio has not been completed. There are more than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio."

"Yeah Nevada!" a group of younger Democrats shouted as CNN's running totals showed Kerry up by one percent. "It could be Nevada or New Mexico," some predicted, that would give Bush the 270 he needed, if he got Ohio.

In the hotel's lobby and in the cab line, conversations and different math scenarios on cocktail napkins were used to to determine how Kerry could still win the race, but without Ohio many knew it was going to be impossible.