Tonight’s debate format makes room for local issues

Michael J. Mishak

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 | 6:53 a.m.

Today's Democratic presidential debate, which begins at 5 p.m. at Cox Pavilion at UNLV, is sponsored by CNN. About 2,500 people are expected to attend, with tickets having been distributed by CNN to UNLV and the state and county Democratic Party organizations.

Here's the format:

First hour: seven questions

Two CNN panelists will pose questions to the candidates, with eight minutes allotted to each issue. On stage, moderator Wolf Blitzer will play debate cop, making sure the discussion moves among the candidates and posing follow-up questions.

Second hour: Nevadans' turn

During a commercial break, candidates will move from their lecterns to chairs. One hundred Nevadans in the audience have been selected by CNN to be ready with their own questions. CNN will choose who asks the questions.

All politics is local.

But local concerns have received short shrift from Democratic presidential candidates, who have been focusing largely on national issues. That might change tonight, with part of the debate reserved for questions from Nevadans on Western states' concerns.

The stakes are high. Democrats believe the candidate who can win the West will take the White House in 2008. Nevada, the theory goes, is the perfect proving ground for a region that has turned increasingly from red to blue.

Among the issues:

If the Southern Nevada Water Authority doesn't install a third intake valve at Lake Mead, the main source of water for Las Vegas, taps across the valley could run dry by 2010, it says.

The water authority wants to build a controversial 285-mile pipeline to carry water here from upstate Nevada.

With the drought affecting the southeastern United States as well, water availability and apportionment are becoming national issues.

Mining companies say paying federal royalties could jeopardize their industry and local economies.

Presidential contenders might walk the line between meeting environmentalists' demands for change while protecting an important industry.

But the ills of online gaming cannot be ignored, say critics who include "family values" advocates and their backers on Capitol Hill.