Diverse 3rd Congressional District key in big races

By Delen Goldberg

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

One of the most closely contested congressional races in the nation is playing out across a swath of Southern Nevada’s desert, encompassing sparkling suburbs and Old West hamlets.

The stakes are high: The political party that wins the 3rd Congressional District will likely take the U.S. House and Senate seats. Likewise, it is ground zero for state politics. Taking the Governor’s Mansion will require carrying the district, the nation’s most populous — about 1 million residents.

Perhaps it is appropriate then that the ground fought over by Rep. Dina Titus and former state Sen. Joe Heck can’t be claimed definitively by either party.

It is on the blue side of purple. Democrats have 173,000 registered voters, Republicans 147,000. Titus has held the seat for two years, but a Republican, Jon Porter, held it the previous six — since its formation after the 2000 census.

Ultimately, the direction of this bellwether district will likely be decided by its 65,000 unaffiliated voters, or 16 percent of its registered voters.

“That’s where it’s going to be won or lost,” said David Damore, a political science professor at UNLV.

Independent voters pushed President Barack Obama to victory in 2008 and tipped Congress toward the Democrats in 2006. But this year, more independents are leaning Republican, according to a national Pew Research Center poll, likely because of the stagnant economy and Obama’s drooping approval ratings.

“The campaigns all need to balance the dual objectives of maximizing the vote from their own base as well as reaching out to independents,” Pew Associate Director Carroll Doherty said. “Usually the successful candidates are those who can do both. If independents are swinging toward the Republicans, that’s a bad sign for the Democrats.”

Right now, polls show the Titus-Heck race as a tossup.

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Stretching from Mesquite to Laughlin, Indian Springs to the Utah border, the 3rd Congressional District encompasses the upscale neighborhoods of Green Valley and Summerlin, with their accomplished private schools, but also blocks of dilapidated shacks, trash-strewn lots and schools regularly on the state’s watch list.

Fewer than 20 percent of voters were born in the district, one-third are minorities and children under 18 outnumber seniors 2-to-1. About a quarter have attended college.

“For Sale” signs hang in front of houses on most blocks. Apartment buildings fly banners advertising discounted rent and free Internet to lure tenants into vacant units. Businesses are closing, and the ones staying open are cutting employees’ hours. The district leads the nation in unemployment and the state in foreclosures.

In interviews with the Sun, the overwhelming sentiment among voters of all political persuasions is that government is not working.

How to fix it? That’s the debate that will decide this congressional race — and the races for U.S. Senate and governor.

“Someone has got to look after us,” said Democrat Pedro Garcia, 31, a lifelong resident who works as a political canvasser but will be out of a job Nov. 2. “They should set up more programs for people who want to work.”

“Stay out of my business — unless you want to purchase something,” said Republican Chere Pedersen, owner of Chef Flemming’s Bake Shop, a downtown Henderson bakery that opened less than two years ago.

In contrast to the district’s partisan voters, independents say they plan to choose candidates based on merit and not ideology.

In some cases that means deviating from voting habits. Many from Titus’ former state Senate district, which she represented for 20 years, support Heck, and vice versa. Titus and Heck represented portions of the 3rd Congressional District in the Nevada Legislature.

Phil Esser, 68, a music minister in Boulder City, said he voted for Porter two years ago because he trusted him. This year, Esser will vote for Titus.

“I think she’s doing a good job.”

For Esser, it comes down to the approach. The Tea Party, with its aggressive anti-establishment campaign, turns him off. He sees local Republicans, including Heck, as sharing the Tea Party vision.

“It’s kind of like the old Ross Perot party, but with torches,” Esser said. “Ross Perot wanted change and accountability in government. I thought that was healthy for our political system. But I don’t see that now with the Tea Party people insisting our president is a Muslim.”

In the U.S. Senate race, Esser plans to vote for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the same reasons. Two years ago, Esser was unsure whether he would vote to re-elect Reid.

In Cal-Nev-Ari, a tiny outpost of mobile homes and dirt roads off U.S. 95, locals lament what they see as a bloated government.

“The government should be able to fit in the old Executive Building it used to be in,” said Nancy Kidwell, 72, who regularly talks politics at the town’s combined post office/restaurant/casino. “We should just have the president and his Cabinet — and not an Ivy League college kid. Someone who knows what it means to pay bills.”

Kidwell said she plans to vote for Heck because Titus “gives the country away” through entitlements such as welfare and unemployment. Yet even though she wants a smaller government, an ideal Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle embraces, Kidwell is undecided in that race. Reid has forgotten where he came from, she said, but Angle scares her.

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Residents of the district’s rural areas appeared not only more informed and interested but more likely to oppose government intervention.

Still, to win the district’s independents, experts said Heck and Angle will have to do more than pander to voters like Kidwell with sound bites about individual autonomy.

Residents in more populated parts of the district have benefited more from the Democrats’ government aid during the recession. Stimulus money, for example, has funded thousands of jobs in the Clark County School District, the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas and the expansion of McCarran International Airport.

But they also seemed less engaged in the upcoming races than rural residents.

“I don’t follow politics,” a young mother pushing a baby stroller in Henderson said when approached by a reporter.

“Oh please, get out of here with that stuff,” a Las Vegas retail worker on a cigarette break grumbled.

These voters confused Titus with Angle and offered blank stares when asked about Heck.

Neither Reid nor Titus can bank on nonaffiliated metropolitan voters pushing them to victory, experts said. Taking the district and the election will depend on candidates convincing this melting pot of voters that their philosophy is the right one to put the country back on track.

“The Democrats in power say they’re trying hard to turn around the economy, but if the results aren’t there people start to question that. More of the rural voters are questioning that already,” Damore said.

“It’s going to be hard to shape the narrative, the agenda. But where they can make a difference is on the ground, talking to people and getting people to come out and vote.”

And that will mean heading out into the vast landscape of the 3rd Congressional District.