Can you bet on the election in Vegas?

My father just called. He was asking me to find out the Vegas betting-line odds on the presidential election. I was bemused and explained to him that there is no such thing. The Brits are known for this sort of thing, but I don't believe that betting on electoral politics in the United States is legal. I mean, how would that work, anyway? What sort of handicapping would go on?

Sometimes, I told him laughing, casinos put out odds just for fun on some things. He seemed convinced such a betting construct exists.

Am I right or wrong?

Why aren’t candidates campaigning in casinos?

Here's this week's Las Vegas Weekly column, which is also appearing Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle...

Why aren’t candidates campaigning in casinos?

by Steve Friess

Over the past week, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have appeared in the following Nevada locations: Two Mexican restaurants. The Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall. The Culinary Union Hall (twice). Two predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. Two high schools and two junior high schools. Cashman Center. The Reno Events Center. A community center in Carson City. A church.

Umm, what state is this again? Notice anything missing here?

Now, compare and contrast. Suppose a hotly contested first-in-the-West primary with major potential consequences for deciding the nominee of a major political party were happening in, say, Washington. Would not Clinton and Obama be showing up for hard-hat tours of Boeing or pocket-protector tours of Microsoft?

Behold, kind Las Vegans. You are being insulted. You may not realize it, but the candidates find the workplaces and famous scenery of your city to be beneath them, an embarrassment, a political liability. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn, in fact, that when the candidates seek out neighborhoods to canvass, some campaign strategist vets the streets in question to ensure the Las Vegas Strip is barely visible. (Damn that ubiquitous Stratosphere Tower, but squint and a geography-impaired nation will think it’s the Space Needle anyway.)

Read the rest here

Pro-Huckabee Folks Push-Poll Me In Nevada

So I'm minding my own business trying to finish up a major USA Today piece on something unrelated to the election and the home phone rings. And it never rings on Sunday evenings unless my partner needs me and I'm ignoring my cell, but in this news environment my cell is glued to my hip.

It was an automated voice asking me if I was voting in the Jan. 19th GOP caucus in Nevada. Of course, I'm not voting in any Nevada caucuses; I'm covering them. But I wanted to hear what came next, so I said yes.

The voice then asked which of the four candidates, Huckabee, McCain, Romney or Guiliani, I supported. For the hell of it, I said Guiliani.

Then came a series of stilted questions. I'm going on memory here, but I believe the first one asked if, knowing that Guiliani is pro-homosexual marriage and that Huckabee recently renewed his vows on Valentine's Day (I think), do I still support Guiliani? Then the voice noted Guiliani's support of "sanctuary cities" and immigration reform and so, knowing this, now don't I support Huckabee? Next I'm asked if I supported some "gun ban" and asked if, knowing that Huckabee is a lifelong hunter who opposes a gun-control law that Clinton signed and Guiliani supported, don't I support Huckabee now?

After it got done shilling for the Huckster, the voice asked if I had a favorable view of Harry Reid. After I answered, the voice says something to the effect of what I think of the fact that Reid wants to surrender in Iraq and hand over our freedoms to Islamo-fascists. That's almost a quote.

The voice concluded by asking if I were male (yup) and if I were over 50 (nope). Then the voice stated it was from a group called Common Sense Issues and was not affiliated with any campaign. Coulda fooled me!

Turns out, this same group did the same thing on Huckabee's behalf in New Hampshire (see Huffington Post piece here) and Iowa (see the Washington Post's John Solomon's blog post here.)

What's odd about this is that (a) until this there has been absolutely no campaigning of any sort by Republicans since Iowa and New Hampshire in Nevada and no appearances by any of the GOP candidates in at least a month, and (b) Huckabee has been openly hostile to gaming in a way that makes it hard to imagine he cares about or thinks he has much of a chance in this state.

And we thought the Obama-Clinton thing was our only thrill this week. Looks like someone thinks Nevada's GOP caucus is worth slinging some mud over, too.

Vegas Univision Stages Its Own Obama Rally

Following Friday's Obama rally at the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Hall in Las Vegas, I was asked to wait for about a half-hour for an interview I needed with the union leader for some election coverage I'm working on including this piece for the New York Times. So I sat eating Skittles in the press area of the now-empty hall where hundreds of union workers had given Sen. Barack Obama a rousing welcome earlier.

Then I started noticing something odd happening. A reporter for the Spanish-language Univision station, KINC Channel 15, was doing a bit of his own union organizing. He corralled about two dozen union members clad in red Obama T-shirts to crowd around him as he did his live stand-ups for the 6 p.m. news. I don't speak Spanish, but it was obvious that he also instructed folks to go get placards and egged them on to cheer and chant for Obama en Espanol when he was on the air.

Here's what it looked like as he did it:


And this is him on the air, before what to viewers at home must have looked like a wild, enthusiastic and large crowd, a la those shots of crazy sports fans outside the stadium after the big game.

You can see below there's nobody behind these people...


Although TV news folks do things we print people never can, I still thought this was fishy -- and a local ABC reporter also doing a stand-up in the same area seemed visibly annoyed by the whole thing and all the manufactured noise going on behind her. I was right: My own partner, the local NBC executive producer, confirmed that faking a rally for a political candidate in the middle of a hotly contested race (well, anytime) is a serious no-no.

Beyond that, I feel obliged to provide equal coverage to go with my Hillary-eats-guacamole photo essay from Thursday, so here's what the ACTUAL Obama rally looked like:

And, as always, I'm a sucker for pictures cute kids, especially ones with colorful leggings...

...and odd-looking people wearing random pink clothes...

Party on, man!

Hillary Eats Guacamole At My Favorite Mexican Restaurant!

It's certainly not a reason to vote for someone for president, but I was delighted that Sen. Hillary Clinton shined the national spotlight for a split-second on Lindo Michoacan, the unusual and muy authentic Mexican restaurant owned by a Mexican family who are real community leaders. The place is so good that after it burned to the ground in 2002 and reopened in 2004, the lines out the door were stunning.

So here are some pix. There's the candidate arriving...


Then she sat down to have a, cough, casual chat with a group of Hispanic locals about the foreclosure crisis. There was something odd but charming about seeing her actually chowing down while she listened to the sob stories.

I'm always amused by the looks of the people I see, like the lady with the cherry cotton candy hair and the cute kids.


This kid was a local Las Vegas 10-year-old who has been covering the campaign for some CNN and Scholastic News youth journalism program.

You ever look around and see someone so familiar that at first you think you know them? That's how I felt when I caught sight of the once (and future?) First Daughter...


Obviously, there was plenty of security...

And some West Wing fans...

But the most remarkable thing was that even as this campaign event was happening, a third of the restaurant was open and serving and this woman was rolling dough for tortillas even as Hillary occupied the rest of the room.


And this is one reason I love this place. This is NOT something you think of when you think of Mexican food, is it? Mmm!

More info about Lindo is here. Tomorrow, I've got to cover Barack Obama at a union hall. Tis the season! Only 8 days until the most important day in Nevada political history, the first-in-the-West presidential caucus.

Sunday Newspaper Musings

Sigh. Review-Journal publisher Sherm Frederick opted to lay off the masturbation stories this week, so there's only a couple of things to point out from today's newspapers:

* Omar Sofradzija in the R-J has a terrific column looking back at the 2000 predictions by a transportation expert on the Las Vegas Monofail. The expert had every aspect of the miserable future nailed down pat and Las Vegas' Mormon Mafia rolled right over them and built the thing anyhow. Oh well.

* It's kind of funny to see a front-page "think piece" by the Las Vegas Sun's J. Patrick Coolican pondering whether Hillary Clinton's negatives may doom her presidential bid on the same day that the no fewer than THREE rock-ribbed conservative columnists (Charles Krauthammer, Rick Lowry and David Brooks) are published in the combined R-J and Sun all begrudgingly praising the senator's preparedness for the presidency in one form or another. When she's even winning over the right-wing chattering classes, it does seem that speculation about the hatred she stirs in people who would never vote Democratic anyway is last year's story.

* I got my first mainstream review for "Gay Vegas" today. It's from the Chicago Tribune. See it here.

Celine & Hillary: Perfect Together?

In a lot of ways, Celine Dion and Hillary Clinton are similar. Both are women I admire -- from a distance. Both are ridiculously successful beyond anyone's expectations or anything that would make rational sense. And in both cases, I like what I hear and read from them but when I see them actually performing (and politics is as much a performance as anything) I find it difficult to believe that THEY believe/know what they're saying/singing. In both cases, there's something antiseptic in their delivery that's a put-off despite their technical excellence.

So I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that this morning, a song by Las Vegas' first bona fide superstar was tapped by the woman who will be the first major-party presidential nominee.

Hillary selected Celine's "You and I" from 25,000 suggestions for her campaign anthem. Hear it here and read the lyrics here.

Thoughts?