Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Three streets provide snapshot of key Nevada electorate

Microcosms of Nevada neighborhoods reveal hopes, frustrations of the electorate

Three Streets

Justin M. Bowen

Greg Martin and granddaughter Bailey are photographed outside of Martin’s home in the Green Valley area of Henderson on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010.

Three Streets

Resident of Piedmont Springs apartment complex in Las Vegas Charles Warren says he will be voting for the Democrats. Launch slideshow »
Harry Reid

Harry Reid

Sharron Angle

Sharron Angle

Sun Coverage

The TV ads have almost run their course. The campaign rallies are coming to a close. Soon, the national media will forget, once again, how to pronounce Nevada.

Forty-eight hours until Election Day and the persuasion game in the most-watched U.S. Senate race in the country — an effort costing tens of millions of dollars — is nearly at its end.

Now, it is left to voters.

The Las Vegas Sun identified three neighborhoods throughout the state that are representative of the voters who will play a key role in deciding the race between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Sharron Angle:

• A densely Democratic street in unincorporated Clark County in the party’s stronghold 1st Congressional District;

• An overwhelmingly Republican street in Reno in the 2nd Congressional District;

•A “swing street,” evenly split between the two parties, in Henderson in the 3rd Congressional District.

Some are convinced their votes won’t make a difference, while others say this is one of the most important elections of their lifetimes and wouldn’t dream of skipping it. Both candidates have devout supporters, but also the grudging backing of Nevadans holding their proverbial noses and choosing what they see as the lesser of two evils.

It’s a snapshot of the people who will decide one of the most important races in the country.

The Democratic block

Piedmont Springs apartment complex, 1700 N. Lamb Blvd., looks like many others — beige stucco, common areas — but it holds one distinction: It is among the most Democratic areas in the Las Vegas Valley.

Of the 35 residents who are registered to vote, 29 are Democrats; only three are registered Republicans, and three are not affiliated with any party.

Reid should be a shoo-in to win the residents’ votes. But he’s not.

Like many Nevadans and party faithful, these Democrats are frustrated with the economy and cynical about politics — and they appear to be taking it out on Reid, one of the nation’s highest-ranking Democrats. Piedmont residents are predominately minority. Like most Nevadans, they say jobs and the economy are their top concerns. But the largely Hispanic population also worries about immigration issues.

Richard Finch, 60, a disabled former cop, supports the senator. He rattles off a list of Reid’s accomplishments — funding for green energy project, jobs, health care reform — and calls a potential victory by Angle “doomsday.”

But in the next breath, Finch insists he won’t vote.

“My one vote ain’t going to swing this country,” the lifelong Democrat said from his living-room couch.

Apathy like that is a problem confronting party leaders, although they are loath to admit it.

To counteract the lethargy, especially among voters such as those in the Piedmont Springs apartments, who came out for Barack Obama in droves, Democrats are targeting heavily Democratic areas with an intense ground game. Last week, canvassers with the Hispanic Institute, a nonprofit group, fanned out at the complex to urge people to vote. How successful their efforts were won’t be known until Tuesday.

“I wish they would pass a law” to help immigrants gain citizenship, said David Murillo, 34, who moved to Las Vegas from Mexico. “They talk about it because (Hispanics) are a large community now in Las Vegas, but it doesn’t happen.”

Still, Murillo is hopeful that immigration reform will come next year — if Reid remains in office.

The Democrats who plan to vote appeared divided — not between Reid and Angle, but between Reid and anybody else. A few said they’ll press the button reluctantly for Reid.

“I don’t like either of them,” said a 19-year-old Marine, who declined to give his name. “But the stuff they say about Harry Reid isn’t bad compared to what they say about Sharron Angle.”

Others said they’ll go with anyone other than the major party candidates, even if they know nothing about them.

“I’m going to pick somebody else,” said 29-year-old Raychelle, who declined to give her last name and said she was still undecided on whether to vote for a third-party candidate or “none of these candidates.” “All I know is it’s not Sharron Angle, and it’s not Harry Reid. They both have issues.”

The swing block

Tucked in an upper-middle class section of Henderson, the residents of Legend Hollow Court present an almost perfect microcosm of the up-for-grab voters who will decide this election. They’re mixed in race, affluence and political opinion. They are swing voters living in the middle of the consummate swing district — Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, which will most certainly determine the outcome of statewide races.

The block is a perfect shade of purple, with the 28 neighbors split evenly among Republicans, Democrats and nonaffiliated voters. Five residents belong to minor parties.

Legend Hollow Court is the type of street the candidates need to win the race. Last week, it was unclear who had the upper hand.

On one side of the street, a Reid sign hung in a window. On the other side, a voter vehemently defended Angle. In between, maintenance workers tinkered with a house in foreclosure, while nearby a family packed for a move to Texas. “There’s nothing here for anybody,” the father lamented.

Raul Ortiz, a nonaffiliated voter, said he supports Reid because he favors immigration reform. Ortiz moved to Nevada 34 years ago from Mexico City. When asked about Angle, he crinkled his nose.

“I really don’t like her,” he said.

Three doors down, Ortiz’s neighbor had the opposite view.

“No incumbents,” said Greg Martin, 50, a small-business owner who calls himself an independent but is a registered Republican. “Sharron Angle is nut city, but she’ll break the cycle.”

Voters like Martin are an important get for both candidates. In 2008, he voted for Obama, his first vote for a Democrat. He says he plans to support Republicans down the ticket this year. This is not the change he envisioned in 2008, Martin said. He also wants to break up the monopoly Democrats have in Congress.

“I don’t have a problem with the Department of Education going away. They haven’t done anything good anyway,” Martin said. “I’m for small government and term limits. This Obamacare is horrible, and illegal immigrants are violating our laws and taking our jobs.”

A few Legend Hollow voters insisted they are undecided — a rare find in this divisive race that has saturated the airwaves with negative ads for months. Others hesitated to say whom they supported.

Mike Keliher, a 63-year-old priest, wouldn’t reveal his vote but said he favors “candidates who are in the middle of the road.”

Reid’s camp has tried hard to paint Angle as “extreme and dangerous.” Keliher, a registered Republican, wouldn’t say if that message had stuck.

The Republican block

Saddlehorn Drive is in the heart of Angle’s old Assembly district in Northern Nevada. A far cry from her modest middle-class home in northwest Reno, this upscale neighborhood in the foothills is filled with $800,000 homes. But these are still her voters.

The precinct is 60 percent Republican and votes that way consistently. Sen. John Ensign took 70 percent of the vote in 2006. The Obama wave left the precinct largely untouched — 63 percent voted for Sen. John McCain.

The residents are a mix of retirees and young families.

The neighborhood appears unscathed by the recession. Homes are occupied. Yards are nicely landscaped. There are no foreclosure notices or yellowing lawns that are so familiar throughout the state. Housekeepers pull up for work in the morning.

Still, residents feel a sense of unease and frustration. They worry about family members who are having trouble finding jobs or keeping their homes. But among the first concerns are government spending followed quickly by the refrain: They just don’t listen to us.

Seventy-year-old Judi Kleidon doesn’t look like the stereotypical Tea Party activist. She and her husband like to ski and garden. They have recently started paying more attention to politics. And last year, they went to the Tea Party rally April 15 in Carson City.

“We wanted to let the government know we’re upset,” Kleidon said.

Kleidon said she didn’t support Angle in the primary, but she has her vote now. Reid doesn’t listen, she said. And although she says Obama is driving the car, Reid’s got his foot on the gas.

She acknowledges that Angle doesn’t represent her views fully — nobody could, she said.

“Sharron says some things that people question and exaggerate,” Kleidon said. “But both you and I know one senator is not going to do all those things by herself.”

Other Republicans in the neighborhood said they couldn’t bring themselves to support Angle, per se. Instead, they are voting for her as a protest against Reid.

“I didn’t want to vote for her, but I knew if I didn’t vote, it would be a vote for Reid,” said one woman who didn’t want to give her name. She said her biggest concern is government spending.

Tina Estay, a pharmaceutical rep, said she’s supporting Angle “not because I think she’s the best candidate out there, but because she is compared to Harry Reid.”

Estay’s most frustrated with Reid’s approach to health care.

“People expect health care to be a right and I don’t,” the former registered nurse said. “You want it, you buy it. You go to the gas station, it doesn’t mean someone should give you gas for free. You pay for it.”

Even if her support for Angle is more opposition to Reid, Kleidon is confident an Angle victory would send a message to Washington.

“If they don’t hear us in person and won’t listen to us at town halls, maybe they’ll listen to the voting,” she said.

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