FROM THE SUNS POLITICAL BLOG

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 | 8:03 a.m.

Following are some of the items posted Wednesday on the Sun's political blog by the Sun's political and government reporters The blog can be found at blogs.lasvegassun.com/politics/ or by clicking on the politics link at lasvegassun.com.

Clinton ekes out another (ersatz) endorsement

The Clinton campaign again adroitly sidestepped a union's endorsement process.

The campaign announced Wednesday the endorsement of 350 teachers. (The Nevada State Education Association has about 28,000 members.) A source close to the teachers union says the union likely won't endorse.

The Clinton campaign probably sensed this fact and came out with its own quasi-endorsement announcement with the 350 names. Smart politics. A couple of weeks ago, this played out with the SEIU. When it appeared the SEIU likely wouldn't endorse any candidate, the Clinton camp announced the names of a couple of hundred nurses, including many SEIU nurses, who'd endorsed Clinton. That served to undercut anything the SEIU does from here on out.

My colleague Tony Cook and I discovered the endorsement confusion was a sign of deeper chaos in the SEIU.

There's no evidence of deeper turmoil with the teachers. Likely they're happy with the three top-tier candidates and see no reason to get mixed up in an endorsement.

Separately, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson won over Nevada IBEW on Wednesday. It represents about 2,400 workers.

So who's left among the big unions, if the teachers decide once and for all at their December meeting to not endorse?

Culinary.

Starting gun: Daskas begins campaign for Porter's seat

Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas launches his campaign for Congress at 2:30 Thursday at Basic High School.

Daskas has prosecuted some of the biggest murder cases in the city in the past eight years, and he's been a prosecutor for 12.

Although, as the Sun reported, he wasn't the Democrats' first choice, he looks very good on paper: a law-and-order background, deep family roots here, not a carpetbagger, no bad votes he'll have to defend.

Surely his courtroom experience means he can speak in public. But can he raise the money, take the inevitable pounding and hit back?

All questions that will be answered in short order.

Republican incumbent Jon Porter, as the Sun's Lisa Mascaro in Washington has written, is appearing more independent lately, his voting record much more liberal than at any time in his career. He'd raised nearly $1 million as of the Sept. 30 reporting period and had nearly $750,000 on hand. Porter beat Tessa Hafen in a tough race in 2006. The district has about equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.

The key will be nonpartisan voters. How they'll break may depend on the presidential race, the state of the war and the state of the economy.

- J. Patrick Coolican