CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
April 11, 2008 – 1:14 a.m.
Six Questions About Saturday’s Nevada Caucus Do-Over
By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff
Some Nevada Democrats are heading to caucuses yet again to pick a presidential nominee.
While Hillary Rodham Clinton narrowly won in the Nevada precinct caucuses on Jan. 19, that was the just the first step of a long nominating process characteristic of many caucus states. That win gave her the majority of precinct delegates heading into the state’s county conventions on Feb. 23. But that’s where things seemed to dissolve for Nevada Democrats.
In the county conventions, Barack Obama won the majority of delegates (512 of 900) in 15 of the state’s 16 county caucuses. But the 16th was Clark County, the most populous in the state, with more delegates than the rest of the state combined. Massive problems there left the state party without final results from the county, and so no winner in the second step of the caucus process.
As a result, Clark County’s Democratic Party on Saturday will re-do the Democratic county convention, some seven weeks after Feb. 23.
Here are CQ Politics’ top questions and answers about the Clark County caucus on Saturday:
1. What happened on Feb. 23 that was so bad that it has to be re-done?
Last minute voter outreach efforts by the Obama and Clinton campaigns led to overwhelming turnout at the Clark County convention on Feb. 23.
In a message to party members, Clark County Chairman John Hunt noted that just over 7,000 delegates were elected at the precinct caucuses to attend the county convention but said an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people tried to attend. “It’s like having a concert and you have 7,000 seats and all of the sudden somebody says, ‘You’ve got to seat anyone who comes to the concert,’” Hunt told CQ Politics. “We were simply overwhelmed by it.”
The resulting convention alternately was described by attendees as “disastrous” and “the worst-run convention I’ve ever seen.” Democrats reportedly swarmed Bally’s in downtown Las Vegas, no one could find parking spaces and the rush to attend the convention nearly shut down Interstate 15. Thousands of people were turned away, and by 4 p.m. the Clinton and Obama campaigns decided to call off the contest and reschedule it for a later date.
2. Why does this matter?
Clark County is, by far, the largest county in Nevada with 1.8 million of the state’s 2.4 million residents. It encompasses Las Vegas, which itself has 545,000 residents including a significant population of union service workers. Democrats are gaining ground in voter registration in the state, making Nevada a key battleground for the general election. And, with the Democratic primary contest still up in the air, every delegate counts.
3. What role do county conventions play in selecting presidential delegates in Nevada?
County conventions are the intermediate step in a three-tier process that begins with precinct caucuses on Jan. 19 and ends with the statewide convention in Reno on May 17.
Six Questions About Saturday’s Nevada Caucus Do-Over
Clinton won the Jan. 19 caucus amid record-breaking turnout — the state party reported nearly 118,000 Democrats participated in the precinct caucus, 12 times the number of people who participated in 2004. Clinton won with 50.7 percent, Obama garnered 45.2 percent and the remainder went to candidates who subsequently dropped from the race.
The delegates to the county conventions were allocated based on the results in the precinct caucuses. Clinton entered the Feb. 23 contest with 4,055 delegates vs. 3,308 for Obama, according to a spokeswoman for the Nevada Democratic Party. Delegates to the statewide convention are allocated based on the results of the county caucus, and delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August will be elected at the state party convention.
Clark County has more than half the delegates to the state convention.
4. Is this a do-over?
Yes. The Feb. 23 Clark County convention was shut down altogether without any delegates being allocated. Subsequently, an executive committee composed of County Chair Hunt, state party Chair Sam Lieberman, representatives from the Obama and Clinton campaigns, and a neutral state senator was convened to set the criteria for the re-do convention.
5. What will happen Saturday and who can participate?
The new convention is scheduled to be held between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday. Democrats are determined to avoid another Feb. 23-type crowd. So this time, only credentialed delegates are allowed to attend the April 12 county convention. Delegates received encrypted credentials in the mail that have to be verified before they can enter the Thomas and Mack Center. The delegates to the April 12 convention are the same delegates that were elected at the Jan. 21 precinct caucuses.
Delegates will vote on three things on Saturday: the presidential preference vote; whether to ratify the delegates to the state convention; and whether they approve the county Democratic Party Platform. And they will cast their ballot on one of 150 voting machines procured from Clark County for the event, which will provide a paper trail for the vote.
6. What is the possible impact on the presidential campaign — since the delegates are the same who came from the precinct caucuses, won’t the results be the same?
None of the delegates to the conventions are pledged, which means that over the past seven weeks, delegates may have decided to support a different candidate than the one they chose in January.
Obama’s campaign had scheduled phone-banking for Thursday, Friday and Saturday to make sure the delegates receive their credentials and have the information necessary to get to the convention, according to the campaign Web site. They also set up shifts for volunteers during the convention itself.
Clinton’s campaign did not answer requests for comment by CQ Politics, nor list any specific activities for the convention on the campaign Web site.
CQ Politics will have results of the Clark County convention, and their impact on the state vote, on Saturday evening.
Comments
What about alternate delegates? How will they be assigned? This is an important point, because in Washoe County, where Reno is, Obama got more pledged delegates than he was assigned at the caucus because not enough Edwards and Clinton supporters showed up.
Wow and they call this Demockracy and Florida Dosen't count guess what Obama you won't get this Florida Democrats VOTE your not my type of Beauty Queen!
Just side note, but Bally's is on the strip, which is most definately not downtown - downtown Las Vegas is the old, run-down, smelly area a good five miles north of Bally's. The phrase "Democrats reportedly swarmed Bally's in downtown Las Vegas" is not correct.
First off, we are experiencing mammouth, historical growth like never before seen in Clark County and our Democratic Voter Registration is still growing. Secondly, it was the people in some 30% of our Precincts that failed to step-up, volunteer, become Precinct Chairs and Captains and complete the necessary Agenda work on January 19th that caused our delegate list to be incomplete. Then, the County Chair inherited a nightmare he had to try and fix - a nearly impossible task! Third, when both campaigns heard about the incomplete list, naturally they wanted to protect their delegates selected and garner as many new delegates as possible - this knee jerk reaction caused the Clark County Convention to be overwhelmed and turned what was supposed to be a business meeting into a chaotic rally where emotions got out of control (and the facts got lost in all the hoopla, whining, sniveling, griping and complaining) - so, John Hunt and Bill Stanley did the only responsible thing they could do - RECESS! For the first time in the history of the Clark County Democratic Party we will send a full slate of delegates to the State Convention in Reno - but, many will not be able to take the time or cover the expenses - so, lots of new delegates will get to participate when they are moved up the list - and that's a good thing TOO!
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