Nevada Feeling Political Glow of ’08 Spotlight

[cal04]

The name of the Democratic candidate for governor here, Dina Titus, is tattooed on the brain of most every Democrat who wants to be president, because of Nevada’s newly vaunted position in the 2008 election calendar.

Since Democrats moved the caucus here smack between the Iowa caucus, the first contest of the year, and the New Hampshire primary, Ms. Titus has worked the fund-raising circuit with Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Senators Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin and John Kerry of Massachusetts and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa are on their way.

“They raise money for me, and I get them face time,” said Ms. Titus, a little-known state lawmaker who has leveraged the attention into a suddenly competitive race against Representative Jim Gibbons, the Republican candidate for governor.

The decision this summer to move the Nevada caucus has infuriated Democratic officials from Iowa and New Hampshire, accustomed to being the electoral prom queens of the primary season, who have been criticizing Nevada’s low turnout in elections and questioning the state’s ability to pull off the complex process of a high-profile caucus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/us/politics/13caucus.html?hp&ex=1160712000&en=8da0efc09c04edbb&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[LVdem]

1. Go DIna...nt

[threadkillaz]

2. ..and we're going to Nevada!

YARRRGGHH!!!!