Clinton, Obama flex different sets of muscles in Nevada

Tony Cook and J. Patrick Coolican

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

While the cameras clicked and flashed at the candidates, and onlookers gawked at CNN anchors in the parking lot before Thursday's debate, the two leading campaigns engaged in an organizational dry run, a rough draft for what's to come when Democrats caucus Jan. 19.

As in Iowa, which will hold the nation's first-in-the-nation caucus Jan. 3, the Nevada campaigns use these events, such as the debate and the Jefferson Jackson Dinner that followed, to test and show organizational muscle.

The week's organizational showing by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama illustrated their different strategies, while highlighting the organizational muscle of both.

All the presidential hopefuls - except one - at the Clark County Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner laid out a case for why the 2,300 attendees should support them in Nevada's caucus.

Clinton did not bother. Her campaign had packed the room with supporters. Tickets were $175.

"We wanted to give our supporters and volunteers a forum to show their support for Sen. Clinton, and Sen. Clinton rallied the troops. What we're hearing from people is that it felt like a campaign rally," Clinton spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

Rather than take on the other candidates, Clinton used her eight minutes onstage in a Paris Las Vegas ballroom to fire up her supporters.

As she ran down a long list of policies and decisions backed by President Bush that have angered Democrats, she repeatedly asked the crowd, "What are we going to do?"

"Turn up the heat," they shouted back. It was clearly orchestrated. Supporters held signs sporting the same phrase.

Other candidates pleaded with the roomful of likely caucusgoers, and most of them took shots - directly or indirectly - at fellow Democrats, especially Clinton.

Clinton, however, took a different tack, never acknowledging the other speakers. And although Obama gave a more spirited address, the crowd was so overwhelmingly behind Clinton that it didn't matter.

As a result, the event had the feel of a campaign stump speech you might expect in October 2008.

The caucus seemed a done deal.

And that's the point.

Clinton intended to reinforce her long running theme in Nevada, that of Clinton-as-juggernaut.

That theme began when she locked up the early support of Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid. Some have interpreted that, though probably mistakenly, as a pass-through endorsement from Nevada's most powerful Democrat, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Rory's father.

Clinton has since racked up a long list of endorsements from Nevada officials, again creating the sense of overwhelming support for her candidacy here.

But a lingering question has been whether those endorsements will translate into on-the-ground support in the state's caucus.

Thursday's dinner was perhaps the best indication that the campaign's support among party regulars is paying off. Of those in attendance, 80 percent were the party's most active volunteers, the people most likely to not only show up at the caucus but also run the caucus meetings. They're the type of Democrats who talk to their neighbors, make phone calls and knock on doors. And the vast majority of them, if the Jefferson Jackson Dinner is a guide, are Clinton backers.

These supporters are key in a caucus because, unlike in a regular election, caucusgoers will have to show up at a specific time and place and then argue with their neighbors on behalf of their candidate.

Strategy and commitment are key.

Clinton's dominance of the Democratic infrastructure was also revealed during the earlier candidate debate. The hall at UNLV was packed with Clinton backers who even booed former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards when he attacked Clinton and mocked Obama when he seemed trapped by the moderator on a question about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

For the Obama campaign, this is neither surprising, nor alarming, his organizers say.

"Each campaign is going to choose where to put forward their organizational effort," said David Cohen, Obama's state director.

Because of the high cost of the tickets, in contrast with the $20 tickets for the Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Iowa, the campaign decided, to some degree, to pass on the dinner.

Instead, the campaign said, 1,000 supporters rallied outside the debate and dominated the UNLV campus. (The Clinton campaign notes it also had a large presence outside the debate.)

The Obama campaign had a debate watching party at a bar across from the Hard Rock Hotel that drew 800. Obama made an appearance on his way to the dinner.

Democratic operatives who are neutral but watching the campaign closely say Obama's campaign is more stealthy, avoiding the traditional party apparatus, but nonetheless active and effective.

The Clinton campaign, they say, is using its control of the Democratic establishment here to leverage broader organizational effectiveness, as was evident Thursday night.