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

Live From The MSNBC Democratic Debate!

I know you're not interested in a play-by-play on the debate, which better sources than I can and wish to provide. But I figured you'd like to see what it looks like from the media's point of view. Here we are all scattered in an enormous, very echoy exhibition space at Cashman Center watching flat screen TVs all over the place. The candidates are debating in another room similar to this, but I'm not real sure where that is.


The Democrats are supposed to be so concerned about the disadvantaged, but not a single TV here has captions on. I'm sure if I asked someone they'd say, "Well, it's really pretty loud." And it is. In this case, it's so loud as to be distorting. Oh well. They did, however, feed us an oft-replenished buffet of chicken breast, salad, pasta and very rich brownies...


Anyhow, the stars have descended on Vegas. Here's the shameless blowhard Chris Matthews of MSNBC with the brilliant and rocking Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post.

...and the lovely, very friendly and much slimmed-down Candy Crowley of CNN...

And the hardest working journalist in Nevada (besides me?) this week, Jon Ralston...


Here's the big screen with the big graphics that's set up as the backdrop for the MSNBC post-show events. That should be fun...


And, finally -- for now, until the spinmeisters come in here -- is my favorite shot of a clearly well-traveled journalist's laptop...

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.

Exclusive: Edwards Trashes Richardson At Private Fundraiser

I ran out on Susan, Gabby, Lynette and Edie last night (Bree ran out on us months ago, didn't she?) to drop in on a John Edwards '08 fundraiser at the fantabulous Vegas house of a California couple. I had been invited by a close friend and had exclusive access to the event.

Naturally, I wrote about it. My essay is up on NVToday.Com now.

But here are the fun nuggets:

* I asked him about the South Carolina debate in the 90 seconds I had to chat with him. He surprised me by panning the performance of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Said the Cutest Candidate of his Oval Opponent: "He just didn't seem to have it together, was sweating an awful lot. But the rest of us did fine. Some of us were a bit nervous."

* Even in this crowd, which raised $60,000 for the candidate, some folks were skeptical about supporting him and distracted by the flap over his $400 haircuts.

* Edwards mocked himself twice. Once he referenced the haircut thing in an abbreviated stump speech and then insisted he didn't know they cost so much and, running his fingers through the coif, quipped, "And it wasn't worth it." Then when he got to the line about his dad being a poor mill worker, he joked about how often he trots out that line.

He did pretty well, really. But the image problem caused by those haircuts is very, very serious.