With the PolitickerNV.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Nevada's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.

With the PolitickerNV.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Nevada's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.

Hillary in Henderson: Get behind Barack

Speaking at a Henderson High School Friday, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), a one-time primary rival to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-Ill.), told Nevada Democrats to throw their support behind Obama. (PolitickerNV.com, Daniel Trudeau)

Link: http://www.politickernv.com/danieltrudeau/2189/hillary-henderson-get-beh...

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Republicans stay for shadow session

Try to say it fast three times: Summer shadow session. Summer shadow session. Summer shadow session.

Tough, isn't it?

If Capitol Hill ever is sleepy, it is during the annual August recess, when the men and women of Congress are far away, skeleton-crew staffers wear shorts and flip-flops, and lunches off campus at Tortilla Coast and Bullfeathers are consumed at much leisure.

Not so for everyone last week. Even though Congress was out of session, small bands of Republicans commandeered the House floor each day for speeches to protest inaction on high energy prices. (Review Journal, Steve Tetreault)

Link: http://www.lvrj.com/news/26825984.html

With temps on call, justices of peace free to take time off

Like other judges in Nevada, justices of the peace are elected. But on many days the people presiding over Las Vegas Justice Court have not been put on those benches by voters.

Las Vegas’ 10 justices of the peace have been making regular use of a 1991 Nevada law that allows them to hand over their robes to lawyers who fill in for them. These substitutes are given the power to deal with civil disputes involving less than $10,000, oversee misdemeanor cases and deal with the early stages of felony cases — including deciding whether or not defendants will be bound over to District Court for trial on murder charges. (Las Vegas Sun, Staff)

Link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/11/temps-call-justices-peace-fr...

Washoe County officials expect low voter turnout

With early voting numbers in and the primaries prepped for Tuesday, Washoe County officials don’t expect any higher than a 20 percent voter turnout this year.

“That’s really pathetic,” said Dan Burk, Washoe County voter registrar. “We train hundreds of people, we spend $800,000 per election, and people don’t care. It’s difficult to understand.” (Gazette Journal, Jessica Estepa)

Link: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080810/NEWS18/80810014

Ensign leads ’thankless’ fight to hang onto GOP Senate seats

WASHINGTON — As if Sen. John Ensign didn’t have enough challenges helping Republicans win Senate seats in November, his party’s longest serving senator was indicted last month setting off another wave of bad publicity. (Gazette Journal, Deborah Barfield Barry)

Link: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080810/NEWS18/80810007

Low state voter turnout predicted

Election officials say early balloting in advance of Nevada’s primary was low, and when all the votes are counted late Tuesday the statewide turnout could be a dismal 15 percent of registered voters.

That’s the prediction of Secretary of State Ross Miller, an estimate backed by Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax who expects the same thing in his county — where two-thirds of the state’s nearly 1.1 million active registered voters live. (Nevada Appeal, AP)

Link: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080810/NEWS/862515701/-1/rss05

Access to city meeting shows gets harder

Government meetings aired on public access channels will be more expensive to watch starting later this month, but the city, a cable company and the public access station might have a solution.

Charter Communications will move programs on channels 10 and 26 in their cable package to channels 210 and 226, which are only available with a $5-a-month digital converter box, on Aug. 26.

The company doesn’t have much of choice because it needs to make room for programs and channels that customers are demanding, said George Jostlin of Charter Communications. (Nevada Appeal, Dave Frank)

Link: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080810/NEWS/864845878/-1/rss05

Humble predictions of the outcomes in four of Nevada’s upcoming elections

Primary races are notoriously difficult to predict.

Low voter turnout — and what real state holds primaries in August? — leads to a dearth of reliable polling data. So you’d either have to be incredibly arrogant or certifiably insane — I’ll let you choose — to continue this tradition of publishing a political forecast days before the balloting (after more than half the people probably have voted early or by mail, too). (Las Vegas Sun, Jon Ralston)

Link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/10/humble-predictions-outcomes-...

DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS: McCain appeals to veterans

Addressing a national veterans' convention in Las Vegas on Saturday, Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, for not supporting last year's temporary buildup in troop levels in Iraq.

"The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines," McCain told about 3,500 fellow members of the Disabled American Veterans at Bally's Las Vegas. "This is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Senator Obama." (Review Journal, Molly Ball)

Link: http://www.lvrj.com/news/26582304.html

Energy platforms could sway state’s voters

Washington — The wide open Southern Nevada desert has always been home to such hope and heartache. Dreamers have been coming here for generations to build something out of nothing, mining the gold deep in its rocks, testing bombs in the name of national defense, entertaining the world on its glittery, gambling Strip. (Las Vegas Sun, Lisa Mascaro)

Link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/10/energy-platforms-could-sway-...

Obama builds booming Nevada force

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is building an organizational juggernaut here. With fewer than 90 days before the election, the upstarts are building on the impressive grass-roots operation they built for Nevada’s early presidential caucus, and it is paying dividends. (Las Vegas Sun, J. Patrick Coolican)

Link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/10/obama-builds-booming-nevada-...

New-fangled voting system gets a ‘NO’ from Collins

It wasn’t exactly the image county officials envisioned when they pitched a $400,000 electronic management system to the Board of County Commissioners: Commissioner Tom Collins using pingpong paddles to register votes on agenda items, one with YES affixed, the other with NO. (Las Vegas Sun, Brian Eckhouse)

Link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/10/new-fangled-voting-system-ge...

LAS VEGAS BELTWAY: New vote on opening date sought

Responding to pleas from the public, two Clark County commissioners are calling for a vote to open the Las Vegas Beltway interchange with Lake Mead Boulevard.

Commissioners Chip Maxfield and Susan Brager are asking their fellow commissioners to support opening as soon as possible the $12.4 million interchange. The vote would take place at the board's Aug. 19 meeting. (Review Journal, Francis McCabe)

Link: http://www.lvrj.com/news/26468319.html

Reno Ward 1 incumbent faces well-known opponents

Ward 1 Reno Councilman Dan Gustin faces challenges from Tom Herndon, a former two-term councilman, and retired Reno police officer Ron Dreher, his opponent four years ago. (Gazette Journal, Susan Voyles)

Link: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080808/NEWS18/80808053