Nevadans prep for inaugural events

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

Kris Shepherd got his start in politics by cleaning toilets.

It was the most obvious need Shepherd said he saw at the Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters last year, when the political novice started volunteering.

"It was amazing how bad the offices were, so I knew that was the first thing I could do to help, by keeping the place at least hygienic," said Shepherd, a 34-year-old who designs sets for local live theater productions.

At least 650 Nevadans, including Shepherd, are slated to attend inaugural events in Washington this week, when President Bush will be sworn in for a second term.

The list of people renting tuxes and zipping ball gowns goes beyond big donors such as Las Vegas Sands Inc. Chairman Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam (each donated $250,000 to the inaugural fund).

And it's not just officials such as Gov. Kenny Guinn, who plans to watch the parade from the White House lawn with other governors.

Many are the grassroots volunteers who did the dirty work to help Bush eke out a win in Nevada. While they have to pay their own way, several volunteers said they had to see the fruits of their labor when Bush takes his oath in front of the U.S. Capitol.

"It's the cherry on top. It's the payoff," said David McGowan, who volunteered hundreds of hours in Republican offices last year.

Summerlin resident Francy Johnson, a high school teacher, said she, her son, Michael, and two other volunteers made more than 11,000 phone calls during the campaign season.

To her, the work culminated in August when Bush visited Las Vegas and met her on the tarmac after he climbed down the Air Force One stairs.

"The minute the president came down those steps from Air Force One I was so overwhelmed I started to cry," she said. "He grabbed me and hugged me. Looking in his eyes there was such a goodness about him."

Her son, Michael Hanson, rented his first tux this weekend for Nevada's ball, and Johnson picked up a last-minute dress Monday.

Hanson, a 17-year-old senior at Palo Verde High School, said, "I just wanted to see him after he won."

McGowan, whose full-time job is at the Henderson Water Department, is traveling this week with his three children, ages 15, 13 and 9 years old, who all earned their own sweat equity.

His oldest son, Jeff, a Rancho High School student, said he started many weekend days at 8 a.m. and finished at 8 p.m. at the Nevada Republican Party headquarters.

He hopes to become an Air Force pilot some day, a dream that sparked his dad to get involved in his first campaign.

"I was watching the news one day and I got tired of all these people just destroying and trashing the president," David McGowan said. "I was terrified about the thought of the military my son will enter in two years being commanded by Howard Dean or John Kerry."