Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Sun Staff Photos
President Barack Obama, left, and Republican Mitt Romney, right, both are courting Hispanic voters as the 2012 presidential election approaches.
Saturday, July 28, 2012 | 7:33 a.m.
They're called "the cooler crowd," and Las Vegas is greeting them with ambivalence: A stream of post-recession tourists ready for fun but watching their wallets.
They gamble less extravagantly than the typical visitor of the past, skimp on tips, sometimes lug coolers and microwaves into their hotel rooms to save on drinks and meals. They're a mixed blessing in a state hit as hard as any by the economic downturn and still struggling to recover.
They're not the only visitors, of course.
President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney have been here, competing strenuously for Nevada's six electoral votes in what is one of the most contested states. The candidates, too, have gotten a mixed reception. Some kingpins of the gambling industry are writing big campaign checks, but many Nevadans have other matters on their mind, namely foreclosures, layoffs, wage cuts, medical bills.
At the MGM Grand, one of the 30-plus lavish gambling resorts along the Las Vegas Strip, bell captain Craig Houston gets a good look at both the high rollers and the "cooler crowd" streaming into the grandiose lobby. Though many visitors are stingier than in the past, the flow of visitors has rebounded to pre-recession levels, and industry analysts say 2012 could end with a record.
By some measures, Houston is fortunate. In the state with the highest jobless rate, at 11.6 percent, he's back at work after being laid off from another resort in 2008, going through bankruptcy and losing his home. He's now a renter, and he tells his grown sons to stay out of the casino business. "You get upset that you're not making the money you used to," he says.
Houston, 50, says he's weary of political bickering and wishes for more focused efforts to boost the middle class. He's not overwhelmed by Obama's performance, but expects to vote for him anyway.
"Most people in this community have been in survival mode," said D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of a hotel workers union. "Of the things that are important to them, politics are about 18th on the checklist."
___
For many in the state, their wish list for the election is short.
"Mostly people will be looking at national economy _ looking for a broad recovery which gives people elsewhere more discretionary income to come here," said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Obama won the state in 2008, thanks in part to strong backing from union members and other working-class voters alarmed by the economic collapse. Four years later, Nevada is still beleaguered. It has lost 12 percent of its jobs during that span, the highest rate in the nation, and its foreclosure rate also remains one of the worst.
Given the pain inflicted by Nevada's housing crisis, it's not surprising that Obama's campaign ran an ad attempting to use Romney's own words against him.
"Don't try and stop the foreclosure process," Romney said during a visit to Las Vegas last year. "Let it run its course and hit the bottom."
Nelson Araujo of the Financial Guidance Center, which counsels hard-up Latino families in Las Vegas, said many of his clients were grateful to the Obama administration for federal initiatives, such as the U.S. Treasury's Hardest Hit Fund, that enabled some low-income homeowners to avoid foreclosures.
"Because we're such a hard-hit state, people want to know who's going to bring that aid," said Araujo, expressing skepticism that only private-sector efforts would suffice.
In greater Las Vegas, the state's economic engine and home to 72 percent of its people, the picture is mixed. At the high end, sales of luxury condominium units at the Trump International Hotel are surging, with many of the buyers from Asia.
The real estate and home-building sectors are improving, but slowly. Thousands of construction workers remain jobless.
Kolleen Kelley, president of the Las Vegas-area Realtors association, said her colleagues are bracing for slow progress, regardless of the election outcome.
"I don't know that they're blaming any one person or one party," she said. "This is not a simple fix. It's going to take a longer period of time to get us out from under."
Despite some recent diversification, Nevada's economy is more concentrated than virtually any other state. The tourism/gambling sector accounts for more than one-quarter of Nevada's 1.14 million nonfarm jobs, and 13 of the 20 largest employers are casino/hotel companies.
Thanks to intensive organizing in that industry, Nevada stands out as a rare stronghold for private sector unions. The hotel and casino operators, unlike counterparts in some other sectors, can't threaten to outsource or relocate, giving the unions some extra leverage.
Taylor's union, Culinary Workers Local 226, claims 60,000 members in Las Vegas. They're waitresses, housekeepers, doormen and others at nearly all the main hotels on the Strip and most of the less-glamorous establishments in downtown. At the union hall, in a low-rise industrial area north of the Strip, members said their contracts helped them endure the worst of the recession, although there was no immunity to hard times.
Tammy Wells, 47, a cocktail waitress at the Luxor, said her tip allocation was cut by half at one point, dropping her annual earnings from about $40,000 to below $20,000. Her pay is now on the upswing, but not yet back to its peak, she said.
Local 226 gave Obama one of his first big labor endorsements during the Democratic primary campaign in 2008, and Wells said she is sticking with the president this year.
"It's very important that it's someone in touch with the common person, who knows what it's like to worry about making your house payment, about having health insurance for your child," Wells said. "Romney is not the common man."
Taylor said relatively few of his members are likely to back Romney, but wondered if some might lack the enthusiasm to turn out for Obama.
"Working people, since the 2008 election, don't see the Democrats as really delivering for them," he said. "The Republicans work hard to deliver for their constituency. I wish the Democrats could do the same for theirs."
Ryan Erwin, a Nevada political consultant who's advising the Romney campaign, believes economic conditions favor his candidate.
"People moved to Nevada to chase a dream, so there is an entrepreneurial spirit here," he said. "They see an Obama administration that has promised one thing, delivered something different _ not a single policy that's beneficial to Nevada's job creation environment."
Reno restaurant owner Tim Wulf is the kind of entrepreneur that Romney aides have in mind.
As of the 2008 election, Wulf says he operated three Jimmy John's sandwich shops with 94 employees and was planning to expand. He said administration policies, notably Obama's health care overhaul, undermined his confidence, prompting him to sell one of the stores and cut his workforce to about 50 in hopes he wouldn't be forced to provide them with health care.
"We become a defensive business instead of growing and expanding," he said.
A small business owner in the Obama camp is Ron Nelsen, 52, who runs Las Vegas-based Pioneer Overhead Door. He says the recent downturn was the worst he'd experienced in a 34-year career, forcing him to cut his 10-person workforce in half, but he now detects signs of an upswing and is ready to add at least one more worker.
He believes Obama is more committed than Romney to strengthening the middle class.
"Making the rich pay a little more doesn't scare me," Nelsen said. "I'd love to be rich so I could pay a little more."
Then there's Jon Basso, owner and impresario at the Heart Attack Grill on a pedestrian mall in downtown Las Vegas.
"Taste Worth Dying For" is the restaurant's motto. A vintage ambulance is parked by the entrance, the waitresses are clad as nurses, and customers don hospital gowns before consuming the high-calorie burgers, fries and butterfat shakes.
Basso, tending bar in a doctor's coat, said his business weathered the recession well "because of how outlandish we are." He mimed a coin flip when asked about his presidential preference; his favored candidate had been Ron Paul, the Texas congressman outpaced by Romney.
"Our whole gimmick is one massive libertarian protest," Basso said of his restaurant. "I want the Democrats to stay out of my wallet and the Republicans to stay out of my bedroom."
___
In some ways, neither Obama nor Romney seems like an obvious champion for a reeling state economy that relies heavily on indulgent, vice-spiced tourism.
Romney is a devout Mormon. His Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposes gambling and says governments should not sponsor it. Obama, also a sober-minded family man, irked local civic leaders early in his term by using Las Vegas visits as a metaphor for profligacy.
Nonetheless, each candidate has staunch support at the top levels of the casino industry, which has thrived over the decades by winning friends on both sides of the aisle at the statehouse in Carson City and in Congress.
"In Nevada, we say there's only one political party. It's the gaming party," said David Damore, a political science professor at UNLV.
Some of the best-known figures _ casino moguls Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn, for example _ have berated Obama's policies. Adelson, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., is giving tens of millions of dollars to Republican causes this election season, including a group supporting Romney.
However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the patriarch of Nevada Democrats, is well-regarded within the industry, and many of its leaders donate to politicians of both major parties.
"At our company, we lean down the middle. We need friends on both sides," said Jan Jones, a former Las Vegas mayor who's now an executive with Caesars Entertainment. She personally supports Obama _ more for his positions on women's issues and health care than for business-related factors.
Early in his term, Obama created a stir by citing Las Vegas in unflattering contexts. He chastised bank employees for lavish Vegas vacations right after they got federal bailouts and later told a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."
The remarks prompted some business groups to cancel planned Las Vegas trips and infuriated then-Mayor Oscar Goodman, who said Obama "has a real psychological hang-up about the entertainment capital of the world."
On a more recent visit, Obama said, "Let me set the record straight: I love Vegas."
For the most part, said Alan Feldman, a vice president at MGM Resorts International, presidents have little direct impact on the gambling/tourism industry, though he praised the Obama administration for easing visa requirements in ways that help Nevada attract more visitors from countries such as China and Brazil.
It might seem that Romney, from a faith opposed to gambling, would be viewed warily by the industry's movers and shakers, but that's not the case. Influential members of Nevada's large Mormon community have found ways to profit from the casinos over the decades. One of the first influential bankers to make loans to the casinos in the 1960s, Parry Thomas, came from a Mormon family.
Now a pro-Romney political action group is accepting huge sums from Adelson, whose casino investments in Macau and Singapore have made him one of the world's richest men. Some Las Vegans assume a Romney administration would find ways to show gratitude.
"Romney may not particularly like gambling, but he's not going to go out of his way to hurt it," said Jan Jones.
Neither candidate is a likely supporter of another Nevada industry: prostitution. It's illegal in Las Vegas, but is allowed in most Nevada counties.
Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel near Carson City, says business has boomed even during the recession, thanks in part to publicity from an HBO series about the enterprise.
Keen on politics, Hof has surveyed his customers. He says 60 percent are Democrat, 40 percent Republican, "but the Republicans spend more."
This year, he's leaning toward Romney for his business background.
"I like the fact that this guy has looked at budgets, made hard cuts," Hof said. "Obama doesn't have a clue about business _ he wouldn't know how to run the Bunny Ranch. Romney would."
___
David Crary can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP
Fewer people buy restaurant sandwiches in a down economy. They make their own. Starbucks has medical insurance for their employees. Sometimes people who can't compete with their product (a dried out sub sandwich) like to blame the other guy for their failure. The "Dinners, drive-ins and dives" show has featured a number of small restaurants that are doing well for example.
There is absolutely no reason for anyone to vote for Obama.
He trashed our economy further by telling everyone not to visit us. As such, we have some of the worst unemployment in the country.
He trashed our housing market.
He has trashed our seniors by stealing so much money from social security and health for younger people it is downright criminal.
Obama will have no fresh ideas in the next 4 years as he has refused to build good relationships with both sides of the house - both sides have good ideas; but by working together we are usually greater together - than apart.
Pelosi can have one more botox job - and her eyes will never blink again. Harry can refuse to do a budget although we all send him tons of money - money - money that we could use to feed our kids.
And Obama does not in any way deserve one more day in office.
Unions are so criminal if they do not bounce this clown out of office -
After reading this It never amazes me to see the associated press can't help it self from leaning hard left and the (sun-review journal)from printing it.This empty suited president come here and plays with everyone's lives oh don't go to las Vegas and spend money. This is a tourist town just like other states. Now he's back with his hat in hand, seems we never heard him apologize for his off the wall statement but he never does on anything he says.This is a guy who talks a story and is never committed to anything he says. People of Nevada need to look at his record here and nation wide. Don't make the same mistake twice.
Romney banned assault rifles when he was Gov, i ain t voting for a liberal gun grabber..
Hey Markey
Keep watch MSNBC they know all the talking points about Mr.Romney. If you read the whole article he stated it would be bipartisan support to change (any law). President Empty Suit stated he will look into taking assault rifles away all together. READ.... http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/367271/2... .....Get your head out of MSNBC toilet...
Lovestohike's comment is emblematic of the fact-free, distortion-laden mindset of the far-right.
We know you hate Obama, lovestohike, and we know that you blame him for every single problem we currently face.
What you, and your friends in the GOP have failed to do, however, is present a single, coherent or logical argument for a vote for Romney.
You can hate Obama all you want, but if you can't present a SINGLE argument in favor of voting for your candidate, that will spell doom for you and the GOP in November.
Hey Kevin
Lets go to your liberal mind set for the answer
blame Bush when all Elise fails.
just Remember Mr.President the empty suit can't run on his record. He has none so smoke and mirrors is all that's left.
Mark Rubio in town, shilling for Party, himself and Romney. NEED Florida. Rubio is good looking suit, nice family, lots of smiles to everyone. Florida Governor is Repub Rick Scott, former CEO of Columbia Healthcare in TN, which paid ONE BILLION in federal fines while Scott was CEO for defrauding Medicare. NO WONDER Repubs want to roll back healthcare reform. They speak as fiscally responsible, but want a CASINO NATION, tax breaks for friends ("job creators"), more bubbles, even bigger megabanks and Wall Street. Mitt Romney is trust fund baby, trust fund run by Goldman Sachs. Offshort accts, Cayman Islands, Bain Capital. Won't release tax returns???? Wife states last week only going to release TWO YEARS of returns, that is all THOSE PEOPLE are getting. THOSE PEOPLE??? Code for NOT US people, gated community, financial educated. And so we get to the CORE of the election. FINANCIAL EDUCATION. Are Americans smart enough to figure out the math, the who-dun-it's from the pundits (?). Buying (voting for) suits and smiles again, or brain power and embedded values which are concerned with a respectable playing field and SOCIETY for ALL Americans. I'll put Geithner's financial expertise against Romney, or anyone Romney can hire. A CASINO NATION is NOT fiscal conservatism. And the President of the USA is a stewardship position over our SOCIETY, which includes business, plus foreign policy and defense. It's not a CEO job, where enriching shareholders (and self) is job 1, 2 and 3. So again, we come back to the math, figuring out what the two candidates are REALLY SAYING in the math behind the words. Neither candidate is going to fly to Germany and successfully get Merkel to support Euro stimulis. Good luck there! But, they will have elections in Germany again. There will be default(s) beforehand, and US banks are not going to loan big money until this hand hits the table and they absorb the blow, no matter WHO is President. Suits and smiles don't change facts, they don't change THE MATH. Obama has done a good job. Geithner and Bernanke has done a good job. Fed much more transparent under Bernanke, applause from everyone. We get back to Mitt the technocrat who won't release his tax returns, after admitting paying an effective personal income tax rate of less than 15 percent recently.
It is entirely plausible to not like Romney but vote for him. He turned an almost bankrupt Olympics into the black. He has a business sense and understands finance. Our President asked to be turned out if he did not remedy our economic distress in four years. Our distress has worsened.
Our country can do no worse with some else at the helm. I certainly dislike Senator Reid--so with nothing to lose and eveything to gain, let us turn Obama out of the White House.
Re lovestohike. You sound like a typical GOP clone, who probably thinks Romney has your "best interests" at heart during his sham campaign. Here's the deal: Mittens could care less about you or anyone in the middle class or below. As an example of your BS post, I am a senior, and nobody has "stolen" anything from me or mine. If anyone would steal from seniors, it would be Mittens, who is a supporter and admirer of Paul Ryan, whose "budget" proposals have spelled out for all to see what would happen to Social Security and Medicare if his "budget" were to ever pass. If you are a senior, this is quite disturbing, and I have pledged to myself to never support Mittens or any GOP Norquist clone that would toss me and mine under the bus for political expedience. I've earned everything I've been fortunate to achieve in life. Social Security and Medicare are EARNED BENEFITS, not "handouts" as your ilk would suggest. There are simple fixes to any financial issues with these programs if the cowards in Congress would simply address, and correct them.
Typical Reid lovers bashing people who love America....
Reid has taken our money; trashed it into unknown places; refuses to do a budget; and refuses to put 33 job creating bills on the table......
Romney will restore jobs to America; will restore people caring about people; will make sure the horrible Reid does a budget; restore prosperity in America
By renaissance - YOu are a senior who does not know how to find the truth., Obama has stolen your social security money; he has hiked your health insurance; he has put death panels in place so you will not be able to get the care you need. He has hurt your home value; he has hurt job market which hurts all. Renaisssance - perhaps you need to do some research as you are incorrect. So sad.
Hey, Ms. Schaffer, how are those Femocrap happy hours working out for you and the Odumbo campaign?
After the greedy republican party created the
WORST ECONOMY IN OUR LIFETIME, any American who
votes for Romney would have to be a raving LUNATIC
REPUBLICANS DESTROYED OUR MIDDLE CLASS AND OUR
ECONOMY!!!!
Romney will be a puppet for rove, bush, cheney
and the same republicans who made the mess in the
first place.
WE'RE NOT STUPID!
NEVER VOTE REPUBLICAN!!!
As with all the forums in this country, this one is no different. Both the left and the right blame the other side for the trouble we are in, when in fact, it is the fault of BOTH the democrats and the republicans. Sadly however, the basic fault lies with you, the voters, who do exactly the same thing congress does (point fingers and place blame) and yet complain bitterly about your elected officials. Have any of you ever heard of the concepts of cooperation, compromise, and common sense? From the comments of 99% of people, I believe not. Liberals and conservatives have some very good ideas and some horrible ones. We need to work together in a centrist approach to solve our problems or nothing will ever get done. We are not a nation of liberals OR conservatives, but both, so our solutions must address these issues from both standpoints.
Mitt Romney may be the absolute worst candidate to ever run for president, on either side. And I'm only talking about his economic proposals.
He wants to cut taxes even beyond the disasterous Bush tax cuts. You think we are running deficits now, wait until Mitt Romney becomes president.
His company, Bain Capital, made tons of money for Mitt Romney, but many of the companies they took over were forced into bankruptcy and worse, workers lost most of their pension funds. Mitt Romney made millions of dollars for himself and the average worker at a steel company, with 30 years of service, lost most of his pension. There is something wrong with that I think.
President Obama wants to go back to the Clinton tax rates for people making over 250K a year. Now, if you check how the economy did under the Clinton tax rates, you will see why this president wants to return to that prosperity.
Sorry Joel but conservatives only represent the
top 2% of Americans.
The majority 98% are represented buy the
DEMOCRATS.
This IS NOT a 50-50 deal, not even close.
The majority of Americans are not rich or
conservative.
It's as simple as that.
Yeager.....You're 100% correct.
Romney only knows how to make money for himself
and Bain, PERIOD.
We don't want him and we don't need him.
He's already rich, old and retired.
He needs to stay retired and stay in one of his
many homes and count his money.
WE'RE KEEPING PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!
hey teamster
Get your facts before you write.Check the ratio of conservatives and people like you liberals,in the USA.http://www.gallup.com/poll/152021/conservatives-remain-largest-ideological-group.aspx
Also lets send Mr. president (empty suit) packing.
I was a life time union worker when jimmy carter was in office no raises had to work lots overtime when it was available to keep my family going.This(empty suit)president is making it hard for not only union workers, but all workers to make a living. After reading your second letter please read my prior post to markey the MSNBC comment apply to you.
Well said Joel....
Romney banded assault weapons in Massachusetts, Obama expanded gun rights by allowing people to carry concealed weapons in National Parks. HR 627 signed by Obama in 2009.
Love to hike...The peak of the Real Estate market was 2005-2006 pre-Obama...the mortagae modififaction program in Nevada was signed by Jim Gibbons and supported by Sandoval. Of course Romney said "let it hit bottom" so shark investos like Bain can steal people's houses.
The Republicans ( and quite a few democrats) want voter ID..so it seems the liberals have come up with a novel solution..Don't allow anyone who does not ascribe to the liberal orthodoxy to have a business license in liberal domains..
Now..following along with the trend...all the liberals have to do is to look at voter registration or past donations or political statements and deny anyone who does not have the "correct values" ..deny that person a drivers licence or an ID..
The liberal Democrats promised Change..and Rahm Emmanuel and the Mayor of Boston are delivering!
Sieg Heil!
Here is a link to an excellent article
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/3...
Hi extra,
Great article right on the money the liberals for the past 50 years have slowly been pushing their agenda to change America into a country of there ideas. Now we have a president that is moving forward at great speed to place the final pieces of the liberal mind set. Today on Sunday when most people don't notice what they are up too,they added a little more.Here is the article and there plan.Not what this county is based on. http://www.nationaljournal.com/scalia-gu...
Obama 2008: "Yes we can"
Obama 2012: "No you didn't"
Election2012 Capitalism or Socialism. Your choice.
Let America Be America again, Vote Romney 2012!
The president recently told a campaign gathering that, "[W]e tried our plan -- and it worked."
"Worked" apparently means something different to Obama than to, say, working Americans. Did the president mean that it "worked" when U.S. business startups dropped from 554,109 in 1987 to 394,623 in 2010?
When Obama took office, unemployment was 7.8 percent. It is now 8.2 percent. Perhaps Obama's plan worked in the way a U.S. major meant during the Vietnam War when he said, "It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."
What are we to make of a president who proclaims with the certainty of a sunrise that, "If I don't get the unemployment rate under 7 percent, I deserve to be a one-term president," then runs for a second term even though unemployment has been above 8 percent his entire tenure? Did he not mean what he said? Or did he mean it in a way we simply don't understand?
President Obama in Roanoke Virginia July 13, 2012 'If You've Got a Business -- You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen' If You Are A Socialist Or A Communist Then You Are Rejoicing That Obama Came Clean And Is Out Of The Closet. Obama: "I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students, the foreign students, the Chicanos, the Marxist professors." ~ Barack Obama (Dreams From My Father.) Obama, Commie mother, commie father, commie grandparents, commie mentor, commie friends ...... commie Barack. Not too difficult to figure this out.
Election2012 Capitalism or Socialism. Your choice.