Molly Ball

Governor Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks) will not have an easy re-election from either party.  Molly Ball at the R-J has penned an excellent story that covers the major players entering the race so far.

Clark County Commission Chair Rory Reid (D-Las Vegas) and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) are the most talked about early entrants on the Democratic side.

The biggest surprise so far this year is the early entrance of North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montanden (R-North Las Vegas).  His is the first announcement from a major player on the GOP side.  

Reid is the current Clark County Commission Chair, is dealing with crisis after crisis at the county level and will receive significant assistance from his father, U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-Searchlight).

Buckley has increased her Assembly numbers to a supermajority and is normally a strong campaign force.  However, she gets the big picture and has to see that the Reid senior will apply immense pressure to clear the field for his son.

Montanden is considered a serious threat on the GOP side because of his centrist, consensus-building approach that has allowed him easy victories in traditionally Democratic North Las Vegas.

Montanden and Reid will have a fundraising advantage, as members of the legislature will be prohibited from fundraising until July of 2009 because of restrictions surrounding the legislative session.

How bad is it for the Nevada GOP?  How did they get here?  Is this a Nevada issue because of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) and all of his might, or is this a larger Western states issue of seismic proportions?

Molly Ball has all of the answers in today's R-J.

Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the Jan. 5 Democratic debate in Manchester, NH.: Getty Images PhotoSeeking to deflate Ill. Sen. Barack Obama’s culinary endorsement and perhaps peel away some wavering workers, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign hosted a teleconference with reporters today in which they decried comments Obama had made about gaming while serving in the Illinois state senate.

“What really concerns me is that these 60,000 [members of the Culinary Workers’ Local 226] that [Obama] is looking to gain their support,” said former Las Vegas Mayor and gaming executive Jan Jones on behalf of Clinton.  “He has repeatedly criticized their industry going back as early as 1999.”

“It is concerning to me,” Jones continued, “that you can routinely criticize an industry, make statements that really are not true and then turn around and embrace an endorsement when you’re really questioning the employers who provide for the livelihood of those workers.”

“So I think today particularly, that the senator comes to rally with culinary employees, that it’s important that these employees question his real support of the industry in which they are employed.”

Sounds good, right?  Attack delivered, just like the politicians have been doing since before we were all born.  The press would surely be talking.  Unfortunately for the Clinton campaign, before the press would be questioning Obama’s gaming position, they would have questions for the call’s hosts first.

Swamped by press, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigns in a north Las Vegas neighborhood.If the reception awaiting N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton on her Thursday evening “canvas” was any indication, swarms of television cameras and reporters will be a much more frequent sight in Nevada in the coming days, and not just on days that O.J. is set to be deposed.

The satellite trucks’ antennas were already tilting in the breeze an hour before Clinton arrived at 22nd St. and Brady in northern Las Vegas.  The local network affiliates, NBC’s KVBC-3, Fox’s KVVU-5, CBS’ KLAS-8, ABC’s KTNV-13 and Vegas PBS, arrived early, setting their cameras up for ideal shots only to have to move them when Clinton arrived in a different part of the neighborhood.  Besides the local television, HD News and network ABC also awaited Clinton, to be joined by counterparts from CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, AP TV, and network CBS and FOX when the traveling press bus arrived.  Clinton, unlike less well-financed or nationally-prominent candidates, has a pool of press that travel with her from event to event and state to state.

Don’t expect State Sens. Bob Coffin or John Lee, who supported former presidential candidates Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, to give their backing to other Democrats still in the race, the Review Journal’s Molly Ball reports.

The Review-Journal’s Molly Ball digs into the Obama state-of-the-campaign presentation and finds that it contains at least several inaccuracies.

With regard to the claim that Obama was the first candidate to run Spanish language ads in the state:  read more »

The Review-Journal’s Molly Ball takes a detailed look at Obama’s record on the issue of gaming in the paper’s Sunday edition – and wonders if there is an inconsistency.

“Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama enjoys poker and blackjack, and admires the way the gaming industry powers Nevada's economy.  read more »

The Las Vegas Review Journal’s Molly Ball has a must-read article looking at the first GOP’s opening shot at Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate Robert Daskas, who is running for the seat currently held by Republican Jon Porter.

Ball writes: “It's been a couple of weeks since the Democrat expected to be Rep. Jon Porter's opponent next November launched his candidacy, but the race may have really begun Wednesday.”

Barack Obama is set to open three new Nevada offices, the Review-Journal’s Molly Ball reports.

The new offices, which will be located in Henderson, Boulder City, and Winnemucca, bring the campaign’s total number of Nevada quarters to ten.

Molly Ball said just about everything that needed to be said regarding former Governor Bob List's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani.  He is a former one-term Governor from ages ago who supports Yucca now.  None of this really hurts Giuliani, but does it help?

Honestly, the early Rudy endorsement by Congressman Jon Porter is far more valuable.  He's in office now, he's in a politically embattled district split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and he is solidly against Yucca.