John Hunt

Current Clark County Democratic Chairman remembers former chair Charlie Waterman, including their attendance of the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston and Waterman's radio talk show host earlier in the decade.

CARSON CITY-With the death of longtime Clark County Democratic Chairman Charlie Waterman today at 79, Clark County Democrats are left remembering a mentor, a leader and a champion of the underdog.

"He was really somebody special," said Clark County Democratic Chairman John Hunt, whose friendship with Waterman stretched back more than twenty years.  "He's always been such a fixture within Nevada and the Democratic Party."

"The best part about Charlie was that he was so passionate and so committed to helping people.  I knew him as a lawyer long before the politics and he always fought for the underdog.  He was controversial because he wasn't one to back down.  He didn't shy away from a fight, he always stayed focused and always had time for everyone.  He was fiery and some people thought he could sometimes be hard, but that was one of the things I loved about him."

Clark County Democrats outside the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV for their Saturday re-voteLAS VEGAS-In make-up voting from their unsuccessful Feb. 23 convention, Clark County Democrats hosted caucus delegates at the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV today in an event that was long on organization and calls of party unity and decidedly short on drama.

"It was very simple, it was great," said Steve Ginsberg, 44, after he had cast his vote.  "They should have incorporated more of this at the first one.  Bottom-line is the speeches were great [Feb. 23], but what counts is that vote.  They got the vote out here with no pomp and now we can move forward."

In results released less than an hour after the vote concluded, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton received 3,442 votes and won 1,330 delegates to the state convention, or just under 54 percent of the total number of delegates.  Obama received 2,900 votes and was awarded 1,133 delegates, or 46 percent.  Turnout was approximately 86 percent of the total identified delegates.

Obama volunteers phone-banking Clark County delegates for the Apr. 12 re-voteLAS VEGAS-Saturday, elected delegates from the Clark County Democrats' Jan. 19 precinct caucuses will descend on the Thomas and Mack Center at UNLV to cast make-up votes from their unsuccessful Feb. 23 convention. As the date approaches, both remaining Democratic presidential campaigns are working feverishly to turn out their delegates and hopefully improve on their positions heading into the state convention May 17-18.

Since the new county voting plan was announced Mar. 5, the campaigns of both N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama, with the help of state and county party staff, have identified their full complements of delegates for the re-vote and mailed delegates their credentials. Now, the campaigns are relying on telephone and e-mail contacts for a GOTD (get-out-the-delegates) effort to get their people to the Apr. 12 poll.

"We're just whipping our delegates," said Clinton state and Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid today. "It's a pretty small universe relative to what we had to deal with prior to Jan. 19. We're just encouraging them to come to the convention on the 12th and vote for Hillary."

Democratic leaders announce new county delegate plan.: From left: Commissioner Rory Reid, convention chair Bill Stanley, former state Sen. Terry Care, county chair John Hunt, state Sen. Steven Horsford, state chair Sam LiebermanLas Vegas- Democratic Party leaders hosted a press conference this afternoon at the Thomas and Mack Center on the campus of UNLV to outline their new plan to elect Clark County delegates for their party’s state convention May 17-18. Chairman John Hunt kicked off the press conference with a solemn mea culpa for the chaos Clark County Democrats experienced at the aborted Feb. 23 county convention.

“The turnout was unprecedented,” said Hunt, “ten times more than any county convention has ever held in Clark. I want to apologize to all Democrats who were inconvenienced or frustrated.”

Hunt outlined the negotiations that had taken place over the last week among the Clark County Party, the Nevada Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee and its Delegate Selection Committee and the two remaining Democratic campaigns to reach a plan for what he called “a fair and equitable election so that we can seat our delegates at the state convention in Reno.”

In just five weeks the Nevada Democratic Party has twice failed to execute the most essential element of winning electoral politics:  efficient and organized mobilization.  And if the November post-debate Jefferson-Jackson Dinner fiasco at the Paris is thrown-in, we are really talking about 0 and 3; a record that does not instill much confidence in the party faithful moving into a general election that may well define the Democrats’ fate in the Silver State for a generation to come.

The Bally's ballroom, site of the 2008 Clark County Democratic ConvetionLas Vegas- “Clown shoes” was how one delegate to the Clark County Democratic Convention described the scene Saturday, echoing the thoughts and words of many in the packed-beyond-overflow ballroom of Bally’s Hotel and Casino.

Trouble started before the convention even began as thousands of people waited in line for hours to be granted entrance to the ballroom.  The capacity of the room was only 5,000, according to a Bally’s spokesperson, but more than 7,400 delegates had been elected from the precinct caucuses last month, not counting alternates.  A fire marshal threatened to shut the event down only minutes after it officially began and when the doors were shut to all comers, hundreds of people still remained outside.

Las Vegas- Shortly after a federal judge ruled that at-large caucus sites could go forward as planned, Clark County Democratic chairman John Hunt and Nevada Democratic chairwoman Jill Derby issued a joint press release declaring that the party is “unified” in their commitment to turn out Nevadans for the Jan. 19 caucus.

The release was an effort at damage control by the party; to repair a schism between supporters on the one hand of the culinary workers and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama and on the other the Nevada State Education Association and supporters of N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton.

“Democrats around Nevada agree,” said Hunt and Derby in the release.  “By participating in the January 19th precinct caucuses, we have an exciting opportunity to change the leadership in the White House and point our country and our world in a better direction.”  

Judge James C. Mahan of the United States District Court of Nevada has ruled against the Nevada State Education Association and allowed the Nevada Democratic Party to go ahead with their at-large caucus sites as planned.

"I don't see a basis for an injunction here," said Mahan.  "The parties have a right to determine how they're going to apportion delegates to the party conventions."

The ruling followed an acrimonious week that has pitted, among others, the Nevada State Education Association against the Culinary Workers Union and Clark County Democratic Chairman John Hunt against the Nevada Democratic Party.

More to follow...