Vegas’ new draw for out-of-staters: Help candidates take the caucus

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Cars parked in a lot Wednesday on Tropicana Avenue had license plates from the following states: Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Ohio, California, New Hampshire, Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey, South Carolina, Indiana and from Washington, D.C.

Las Vegas gets many tourists, but these drivers hadn’t come for entertainment. They were volunteers and staff working in one of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign offices.

Less than a mile away, also on Tropicana Avenue, was a campaign office for Obama’s chief rival in Nevada New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. The office was much smaller than Obama’s (and better appointed), but the work by the six volunteers inside was no less enthusiastic.

“Hillary Clinton just won in New Hampshire, and we need more than hope to make a change,” Robert McDaniel said into a phone in a smooth delivery honed by the calls he’d made for her in Iowa. After that state’s Jan. 3 caucus, McDaniel hit the road for Las Vegas.

Two campaign offices, a mile apart, each engaged in a sprint to Nevada’s Jan. 19 Democratic caucus. It is a scene that plays out in virtually every state before every presidential contest. But never before has Nevada witnessed anything like this.

Obama won in Iowa. Clinton in New Hampshire. Nevada is the first rubber match of the primary election season. In the days ahead, the frenzy in campaign offices and among neighborhood canvassers will grow as more volunteers and staff members flood the state to work until they drop.

In the Clinton office, Luz Giraldo of Las Vegas made calls in Spanish.

“So many people only speak Spanish,” she said, holding up a thick list of names on which she marked voters’ level of support.

“I like her very much,” Giraldo said of Clinton. Then she leaned closer and smiled. “When her husband was president, the nation was in good shape. I really love her husband.”

Poster-size sheets of paper hung in the lobby, one for each coming day from Saturday to next Friday, the eve of the caucus. The campaign sought 100 names on each poster, 100 people to go knock on doors that day for the GOTC effort Get Out the Caucus. So far, some days had as few as three names, some as many as 16. Those numbers are likely to grow rapidly.

In the door came Jose Luis De Fuentes, 55, He stopped by to ask for yard signs.

“I have a feeling she’d be a better president,” he said as the campaign got him to sign a card pledging his support to Clinton. His choice was about personality. “I don’t feel the connection with him.”

At the Obama offices, many of those cars in the parking lot were covered with the grime of a cross-country drive, backseats stuffed with bedding and luggage.

At the entrance to the office was an Elvis cutout wearing an Obama head-warmer. Inside, the big room swirled with a dozen volunteers and even more staffers. Some had just been introduced around and were getting an opening lesson on Nevada’s caucus and Obama’s turnout effort.

The scene had more energy and noise than the one at Clinton’s office, although the comparison means little considering the number of other such offices operating for each campaign. The Obama workers also appeared younger.

Bryce Fingado arrived with his laptop Wednesday from Chico State University in California. School is out until the end of the month, and he planned to stay here through the caucus.

Edith Byrd, 55, has been volunteering in this office since September. She’s lived here for three years. And though she followed Obama before, she became a devotee after listening to him speak at the Doolittle Community Center in June.

“He was so overwhelming,” she said.