Dems get busy, turn state into caucus beehive

Michael J. Mishak

Saturday, May 12, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

Barack Obama drew 3,500 people to an outdoor rally in Las Vegas in February.

Last month Hillary Clinton attracted just as many to a high school gym in Reno.

And now, as the two Democratic front-runners open their Nevada headquarters, hundreds are turning out just to hear campaign surrogates speak.

With the 2008 presidential race in full swing, the Nevada Democratic Party is moving aggressively to translate that enthusiasm into organization for the state's second-in-the-nation caucus.

In doing so, the party confronts what many view as the biggest challenge it has ever faced.

That's why party leaders have enlisted a team of Iowa political operatives to guide them through the process. And a little more than eight months before the Democratic caucus, those experts say the party is on track - and even outpacing Iowa in some areas, not the least of which is voter excitement.

"The hardest thing won't be finding the people," said Jean Hessburg, the former Iowa Democratic Party executive director hired to oversee the Nevada caucus. "It will be training all of them." Hessburg oversaw the Democratic caucus in Iowa in 2004, a contest that saw record turnout.

The Nevada party set up an informational Web site last month and already has held 150 presentations statewide on the mechanics of the caucus. Officials also are working to identify and recruit the 2,000 volunteers they will need to run meetings at about 1,000 locations. In 2004, the party had only 17 caucus sites, one per county.

Mock sessions to give volunteers a trial run through the complicated process, which involves applying a math formula to assign delegates to individual candidates, also are in the works.

The party's budget is equally ambitious. Officials hope to raise about $2 million, twice the amount that Iowa Democrats raised for their 2004 contest. The disparity is largely because of the money the party says it will need to promote the caucus in a state that, until now, has been irrelevant in presidential primary politics.

Roughly $600,000 will go to advertising, education and outreach, caucus officials say.

"In Iowa and New Hampshire it's become a civic responsibility," said Mike Sloan, a longtime Democratic operative and gaming consultant who is heading the Nevada fundraising effort. "Here, we're starting from scratch."

So far, Sloan said, the money, about $500,000 in all, has flowed from the state's gaming and mining industries, in addition to its legal and development communities. Organized labor also has contributed heavily to the financial effort, he said.

The education and outreach effort is critical. Nevada Democrats have caucused in the past but never in large numbers, mostly because of the state's late position on the nomination calendar, rendering it inconsequential.

Turnout has often numbered only in the hundreds, hitting a record of about 9,000 voters in 2004. This time around, Democrats hope to attract as many as 100,000.

A caucus is a party-run political meeting, not a primary run by state election officials. There is no early voting or absentee balloting. Registered Democrats gather at a particular location at a particular time and publicly declare their support for a candidate.

Much of Hessburg's work has involved bursting the popular image of the Iowa caucuses as a fierce political battleground where neighbors verbally joust over their favorite presidential candidate.

"The notion that Iowa is this rough-and-tumble situation is a myth," Hessburg said.

Most caucus-goers, she said, arrive with a favorite in mind, find fellow supporters and quietly work through the process. In Nevada, meetings, which will take place in public venues such as schools and libraries, should not last any longer than an hour, she said.

In the end, it will be up to the presidential campaigns to drive turnout, Hessburg said.

Even so, the party has established rules to ensure participation.

Notably, the party will hold eight to 10 at-large precinct meetings for as many as 4,000 shift workers on the Strip who otherwise could not take off time from work to participate in the caucus. Those meetings, which underscore the importance of Culinary Union members in the Democratic caucus effort, could take place in hotel ballrooms, officials said.

All of this adds up to what Democrats paint as an historic opportunity to grow their ranks and broaden the base of the party. At the close of voter registration last fall, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by about 7,000 voters - less than a 1 percent registration edge. Recognizing the threat, Republicans officially moved their caucus date last month to Jan. 19, the day of the Democratic contest.

"This is about so much more than one day of party activity," state party Deputy Executive Director Kirsten Searer said. "This is about turning Nevada blue."