Ryan Erwin

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.

LAS VEGAS-With the announcement today that Republican Melissa Woodbury will run for the open 23rd Assembly District seat now held by Democrat Rosemary Womack, Las Vegas now has had two assembly candidates with a local school named for a parent announce in the last 48 hours.

Woodbury, a 39-year-old teacher from Henderson and daughter of longtime Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, has contracted with Ryan Erwin & Associates to manage her campaign and today released a statement announcing her candidacy.

Nevada Senate Caucus director Joe BreznyLAS VEGAS-In the coming weeks, PolitickerNV.com will be profiling some of the staffers and consultants who work so hard to get these guys and gals elected and us something to write about. Today's subject: Joe Brezny, executive director of the Republican Senate Caucus.

Brezny, 37, has spent much of his life actively working to get Republicans elected. While just in high school, he began his career as a "Students for Bush" volunteer in Columbus, Ohio in 1988.

"Back then it was licking stamps and stuffing envelopes and talking with other high school seniors about getting registered to vote," said Brezny. "That's something that I still try to do whenever I get a chance, is speak with high school seniors and say ‘here's what I think, politically. If you love that and want that to be what happens, register to vote and vote the way I vote. If you hate that, register to vote and vote against it. Either way, have a voice.'"

Rumor has it that state Sen. Majority Leader Bill Raggio is bringing back former caucus director Joe Brezny to help out this fall.  Brezny just finished a stint working beside Ryan Erwin on the locally successful Mitt Romney campaign.

In a town where betting it all is ordinary, the choice this year is a simple one for Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt.  Either run for re-election and possibly lose to political newcomer Sean Fellows, or step up and run against Senator Joe Heck.  read more »

Ryan Erwin, president of Ryan Erwin and AssociatesLas Vegas- In the coming weeks, PolitickerNV.com will be profiling some of the staffers and consultants who work so hard to get these guys and gals elected and us something to write about.  Today’s subject: Ryan Erwin, president of Ryan Erwin and Associates.

Erwin, 36, began his career in politics while a student at Ohio State University in the early nineties.  He worked for the Ohio GOP and was active in both state legislative races and the Bush/Quayle ’92 Ohio effort before leaving school to run the statewide grassroots for former Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine in 1994.

Ariz. Sen. John McCain campaigns in Michigan.: Getty Images PhotoRepublican presidential hopeful John McCain has opened his first campaign offices in Nevada and is furiously building a staff here, according to Paul Jackson, McCain’s Nevada state director.  These moves come as a new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows McCain with a lead in the state for the first time since May.

“We’ve been working day and night,” said Jackson, describing McCain’s newly-minted Nevada effort.  “Little sleep and lots of coffee.”

Nevada’s Jan. 19 Republican caucus has been largely overlooked by the Republican field, with the exceptions of former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and Tex. Congressman Ron Paul, as they’ve focused instead on Michigan’s primary Tuesday and South Carolina’s Saturday.  Despite McCain’s new efforts here, his campaign will have a lot of catching up to do to compete with the strong organization that Romney, in particular, has built in the state.

Despite surprise losses in yesterday’s Iowa caucuses, the campaigns of both N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney expressed confidence in their prospects for winning their party’s respective nominations today, both hosting post-Iowa conference calls with an eye to the other early-voting states.

“We have twenty-six more contests coming up” by Feb. 5, said Terry McAuliffe, former DNC Chair and Clinton’s national campaign chairman. 

“One huge advantage that we have in the Clinton campaign is that from day one, we were going to run a national campaign.”  McAuliffe cited fundraising numbers over $100 million and an organizational presence in all twenty seven Super Tuesday or earlier states for support.

Political consultant Ryan Erwin, who’s managing former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s Nevada campaign, has some very serious doubts about the new American Research Group poll that shows Romney taking the lead in Nevada at 29 percent, followed closely by a newly-insurgent Mike Huckabee at 23 percent.

“It is extraordinarily difficult to poll for the Nevada Caucus,” Erwin said today.  “It’s hard to poll for any caucus, but Iowa at least has a history and a better concept of who’s actually going to caucus.”

Nevada Republicans have lined up behind Sean Fellows as a star of their effort to retake majority control of the Nevada Assembly. He'll face Democrat Susan Gerhardt in the 29th district.

Fellows, a 27-year-old Air Force Reserve Captain, was the guest of honor recently at a Las Vegas Country Club fundraiser that was hosted by no less than thirteen of Nevada’s twenty-four Republican legislators as well as Gov. Jim Gibbons, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and state GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden.

“I’m really flattered by and encouraged by the support of the establishment,” said Fellows Monday. “We did really well on the fundraising side and I was personally pleased by the turnout.”

Besides fundraising, Fellows has also received considerable support in the area of campaign expertise from Ryan Erwin, a long-time Nevada political consultant. Before signing on to Fellows’ bid, Erwin had worked as Executive Director of the Nevada Republican Party and Chief Operating Officer of the California Republican Party, as well as directing races for Nevada Assemblyman Bob Seale and Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs-McDonald.