Anjeanette Damon

Anjeanette Damon has taken time away from training for her post-election bicycle tour to report on the latest head-to-head numbers at the top of the ticket.

The comment war on this one is worth a read as well.  But if you're still too lazy to read it, the short version is that Obama has opened up a 7 point lead in Nevada.

DENVER – Nevada only has five electoral votes. But in what is expected to be a close presidential contest, those five votes could well swing the election.

As of today, the Silver State is widely seen as a tossup, with the Pindell Report ranking the contest as the most competitive battleground in the country.  And Nevada has another dimension of fascination this cycle, with the state’s pledged delegates splitting between Democratic primary rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Moments after the Nevada delegation finished their breakfast meeting at the Marriott here this morning, PolitickerNV.com today spoke with two leading Silver State political observers about the presidential landscape in Nevada.

“It’s the first convention I’ve been to in 20 years,” said Jon Ralston, whose column for the Las Vegas Sun is considered a must-read for the state’s political class. “I mean usually there’s nothing around at these things, it’s just pageantry and spectacle.”

Anjeanette Damon at the Reno Gazette-Journal wrote Wednesday about a listening in on an apparently one-sided telephone poll, which seemed to push U.S. Rep. Dean Heller (R-Carson City) and pan his Democratic opponent, Jill Derby.

In her Inside Politics blog on the RGJ website, Damon questioned if Heller's campaign played a part in commissioning the telephone survey, which featured a pollster speaking in glowing terms about the freshman congressman and not-so-subtly calling Derby's record into question.

An excerpt of Damon's post is below:

The caller asked about U.S. Rep. Dean Heller's ability "to get things done" and his willingness to put constituents' interests over partisan politics. She asked if Heller is "one of us" sharing the same experiences, "worries and hope for the future."

Listing a number of positions, the caller asked if one was more or less likely to vote for Heller for his proven ability to work on a bipartisan basis, his support of English-only ballots, his fight against wasteful spending and his work to secure funding for DNA testing. My favorite: Heller "knows you can't haul supplies with a hybrid" and that "we need pick up trucks."

My esteemed colleague Anjeanette Damon received a bit of a chewing from conservative lobbyist Paul Enos in his defense of the Governor.

Read all about it on her blog: 

   read more »

The Reno Gazette-Journal's Anjeanette Damon reports on the governor's office's announcement that the future of his marriage is uncertain.

Governor Jim Gibbons and wife, Dawn, have been married since June 1986.

The RGJ’s Anjeanette Damon reports that First Lady Dawn Gibbons has endorsed Mitt Romney.

“First Lady Dawn Gibbons announced her endorsement today of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. She shared the stage with him at his Reno rally. Asked if her husband shared her opinion, she answered: ‘You'll have to ask him.’”

The RGJ’s Anjeanette Damon has the new Research 2000 Nevada presidential caucus poll numbers. The survey, conducted January 11-13, has a 4.5 percent margin of error. The sample size is 500 likely Republican caucus voters and 500 likely Democratic caucus voters.  read more »

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor

The Reno Gazette-Journal's Anjeanette Damon is a tremendously talented reporter with great political instincts, but some political insiders think her analysis of the Culinary Local 226 endorsement - that their waiting until early January to endorse "is a significant blow to Nevada's strength in the nominating process" could be dead wrong.

Waiting another few weeks to endorse could actually make Nevada more important to the presidential nomination process and, maybe Local 226 boss D. Taylor can avoid being Gephardted - or face a repeat of the implosion of organized labor in Richard Gephardt's 2004 Iowa campaign.

Damon does get the three possible scenarios right: "One, Culinary could simply cede it, going with the winner of the Iowa Caucus. Two, Culinary could endorse the second or third place candidate in the Iowa Caucus, propel that person to victory in Nevada and claim its stake as a major player in the presidential contest. Three, Culinary could endorse the second or third place candidate in Iowa Caucus, fail to propel that person to victory in Nevada and relinquish much of its credibility with whoever does go on to become president."

No matter what, the culinary workers will have a choice to make after Iowa, but only in the case of Hillary Clinton winning there will Nevada or the union be less important.  If Clinton wins Iowa, she will likely cruise through New Hampshire and Nevada regardless of what the culinary union does.  It won't have made any difference at all if the union had endorsed her before or after Iowa, because Clinton will be riding the "Inevitability Express" and every Democratic player in the country will be jumping on board.

Waiting until after Iowa, Culinary will be much better positioned to play a role in actually selecting the Democratic nominee. An endorsement of Hillary Clinton today would add resources to her campaign -- but no huge publicity boost. The story would be, "Floating on a 24 -point lead in Nevada, Clinton ties up Culinary Union loose end." The union would be an accomplice, not a kingmaker.