Jon Ralston on Nevada’s rise to Division I in caucuses

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007 | 6:58 a.m.

Like Appalachian State stripping the Michigan Wolverines of their dignity on opening day, the Democratic National Committee last weekend executed the political equivalent, cementing the importance of The Little Caucus That Could.

When the DNC voted Saturday to bar Michigan's delegates from the national convention, it ensured the state's Jan. 15 caucus would have almost no significance and gave the Appalachian State of presidential caucuses renewed importance. After enduring months of uncertainty and being treated like a Division I-AA caucus by the major political powers in presidential politics and the Fourth Estate, it is now official: The place to be in January is Nevada.

The national media and candidates will cure their New Year's hangovers in Iowa and skip to New Hampshire for five days. Then, unless the Inevitability Express gets back on track and the nomination appears secure for Hillary Clinton, which now seems unlikely, the Democratic candidates will spend a third of the month campaigning in Nevada for its Jan. 19 caucus.

(The Republicans are a different story. With South Carolina's GOP holding a primary Jan. 19, the Republican caucus here is diminished. Hence the lack of campaigning here by the GOP hopefuls, with the exception of regular visits from Mitt Romney and the intermittent, languid stops of Fred Thompson.)

This state has never seen the likes of what is about to occur a month and a half hence. For 10 consecutive days, Nevadans will feel like Iowans and New Hampshirites have felt for too long - important.

The candidates and national media types will bivouac here for that week and a half, bloviating, pandering and gambling (literally and figuratively, I'd guess). For that short but intense period, it will feel like late October of campaign season, with mailboxes stuffed with propaganda and TV stations jammed with attack ads.

This is what all the advocates, from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to union folks to Democratic activists, envisioned when they lobbied the DNC to open the gateway to the West here. And, much to my surprise, it has worked.

Yes, I confess. I lost my faith in The Little Caucus That Could. I wanted to believe, so badly, and I thought I could, I thought I could.

I prayed for guidance but saw only Iowa and New Hampshire (even Oprah snubbed us but I bet she comes in January!). I looked for hope but heard only condescension from the national bigfoots, if they even remembered we were on the calendar, and Nevada received only sporadic dollops of attention from the candidates.

But now, as they finish off their genuflections in the snow to the folks in Council Bluffs and Manchester, they surely are thinking ahead to Las Vegas. They will need us, I think. And badly.

I am sorry, God (aka Lord Harry). I have blasphemed but now I repent. I believe.

I am sure that Iowans and New Hampshirites, as they have been patting us on the head all year, still believe in the preeminence of their little upcoming events. That's nice.

But people are about to - if they have not already - shut down for the holidays, tuning out the presidential race and focusing on the season. By the time people, even in the ubersophisticated states of Iowa and New Hampshire, awake from their holiday stupor, it will be time to focus on Nevada.

The candidates will be marking the New Year by tossing their "I love ethanol" briefing books in favor of their "I hate Yucca" manuals. They will forget trying to pronounce the words for obscure farm implements or the names of minuscule New England villages and practice saying "Nevada" correctly. And they will leave behind their snow boots to bask in the Silver State sun for 10 days.

Soon now, the Culinary Union will set the tone for the Nevada caucus by announcing its endorsement, an embrace that because of the state's elevated importance could be remembered as pivotal in the nominating path. And it will really mean something as the Appalachian State of caucuses goes Division I. (This metaphor pains me as a former grad student at Michigan. But it is part of my penance for nonbelieving.)

If nothing is clarified by Iowa and New Hampshire, as seems likely, Nevada will be the place where the eventual nominee will remember the momentum started. Not to worry, though, Iowa and New Hampshire. We are much more ecumenical and giving in Nevada and we will argue for you to retain some role in the quadrennial cycle.

You just aren't as important as you used to be.