Just passing through

Michael J. Mishak

Sunday, April 8, 2007 | 7:26 a.m.

Iowa: 26

New Hampshire: 16

Florida: 3

South Carolina: 3

New York: 1

New Jersey: 1

Nevada: 0

SOURCE: Major candidates' public campaign schedules from Friday, March 30 through Friday, April 6. Candidates include: Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards and Republicans Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. John McCain had no campaign events during this period.

The election calendar may have changed, but presidential campaigns are stuck in old ways that, so far, do not bode well for Nevada.

Despite the best efforts of Democrats, Nevada remains virtually a fly-over state for the party's candidates even though the presidential caucus moved to a coveted spot between the first-in-nation contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The campaigns and state party officials insist the candidates will conduct robust campaigns here, and that may eventually be true. But with Congress in recess, last week was a good time to take a snapshot - and Nevada wasn't even in the picture.

The senators running for president used their break to spend considerable time in Iowa and New Hampshire, getting no closer to Nevada than appearing in a small Iowa town bearing its name .

And in the past few months Democratic hopefuls, with rare exception, have gotten no closer than the 35,000-foot cruising altitude on the way to fund raisers in California.

Visits here by the three major Democratic presidential hopefuls have centered on two candidate forums, designed to bring them to Nevada early in the race.

Those events were successful, but candidates hardly stuck around to introduce themselves to other voters.

Similarly, he touched down in Las Vegas last month to speak at a union rally and participate in a health care forum, leaving after for a fund raiser in West Palm Beach, Fl a.

By contrast, Obama held eight town-hall style meetings in Iowa last week alone.

Clinton held three such sessions in Iowa last week.

Last week Edwards held two town-hall sessions in New Hampshire and three in Iowa.

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson have made more of their time here, meeting with local activists and speaking at party fundraisers.

Nevada Democrats say it's unfair to compare this state with other early battlegrounds, and the campaigns - sensitive to the criticism - say their candidates are committed to spending a substantial amount of time here in the near future.

"There's nothing nebulous about the candidates' visits to Nevada," said Jean Hessburg, former executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party who was hired by Nevada Democrats to run the Silver State caucus.

While candidates have fully functioning campaigns in the other early states, they are still hiring and setting up operations in Nevada, Hessburg said.

"Iowa and New Hampshire have long histories," she said. "Candidates are going to go for the low-hanging fruit first."

Once campaigns get a firm footing here, the presidential scene will blossom, she said. That's already happening elsewhere.

David Yepsen, political columnist for the Des Moines Register, said the campaigning in Iowa on both sides has reached unprecedented intensity. Candidates are already buying TV and radio airtime, he said.

Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington, predicted last week that Nevada ultimately will be disappointed. "Nevada will get more attention from presidential candidates than it did in previous years but far less than it wants or expects," Cook said.

Habits are hard to break, he said. Candidates and the media alike are reluctant to gamble on Nevada, instead investing time and resources in states with a record of results.

"There is no question in the minds of the candidates or the political press corps how enormously important Iowa and New Hampshire will be, enormously important," Cook said. "But there is still a question mark about whether Nevada will be important, somewhat important or not very. Thus they are less willing to invest a lot of time there early on."

Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, another well-respected Washington newsletter, echoed that opinion in a column last month. Rothenberg predicted that New Hampshire, not Nevada, would be the focus of the national media after the Iowa caucuses.

Not necessarily, Yepsen said. Once states stop jockeying for position and the election calendar firms up, campaigns will start paying more attention to Nevada, he said.

Candidates also need time to adjust to the largely uncharted territory of the West in the context of presidential politics, he said.

"We're still playing a game where the rules and the board haven't been completely set," he said.

Add to the mix Nevada Republicans, who are all but certain to move their caucus to Jan. 19, the same day the state Democrats vote. The move could double the state's national exposure .

And aides to the three major Republican candidates have indicated that they will play in Nevada. But the extent to which they invest here remains to be seen .

"The more the merrier," Hessburg said. "We must be doing something right if the Republicans want to follow suit."