Nevada political roundup: Obama’s visit to Reno

By Lisa Mascaro

Monday, Aug. 18, 2008 | 11:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Monday greetings, Early Liners.

Coming to you from Washington, after some travels through Nevada. I started believing these two places have more in common than either may want to admit. Think about it: In one, an easy pastime is clinking quarters in the slots. In the other, it’s incessantly scrolling the screen of your Blackberry. Both involve staring down the display for the payoff; both are totally acceptable ways to spend a summer day. Are we really so different?

With that, here's your weekend wrap-up of Nevada political news:

It was all Obama, all the time this morning after the presumed Democratic nominee made a swing through Reno on Sunday. Obama’s "It's about us" line caught my attention as sounding like circa-1992 Bill Clinton wooing a crowd.

But more telling was Obama’s choice of a Reno stop, write various scribes in the Sun.

Columnist Jon Ralston’s raises the point succinctly in Sunday’s flash.

“Why Reno? Shouldn’t he be down in Vegas? Oh, he will be. But Obama seems to realize what few Democrats outside of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and perhaps Controller Kim Wallin know -- the North may be the key to Obama winning the state. It’s not just that Reno recently turned Democratic in registration, a product of the surge since the Jan. 19 caucus. It’s that moderate Republicans up there saved Reid’s career in 1998, helped Wallin in 2006 and could put Obama over the top this cycle.”

Reporter Michael Mishak gives us the numbers on growing Democratic voter registration in Washoe County, and reminds us that the Obama campaign opened its first Nevada office in Reno.

Carson City’s David Schwartz brings it all home today with an interesting behind-the-scenes story on Obama’s private meeting with party leaders before the Reno event:

During the private meeting, Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, an early Obama supporter, jokingly reminded Obama that he won Washoe County by 10 points in January’s Democratic caucus, she said. “Yeah, but what about Elko? That was really great,” Obama responded, pointing to his 19 percentage point win over Sen. Hillary Clinton at a time when the nomination was still being contested.

Now the question is whether that support will continue and make the difference come November’s general election.

When a Reno union worker asked how she could help the Obama campaign, the candidate suggested shooting down rumors about his religion.

The fact that voters need to be convinced Obama is a practicing Christian (not a Muslim, as some opponents have whispered) reminded me of this New York Times story last month. Obama supporters have been calling themselves “Hussein,” as a way to re-take the candidate’s middle name from those who would use it against him. (Think “I am Spartacus,” the NY Times suggests.)

The big action in Las Vegas this week is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s renewable energy summit. Reid is bringing together marquis names in green energy -- from Bill Clinton to oilman-turned-wind-energy developer T. Boone Pickens -- for what he says will be a wide-ranging talk. The conference starts with Clinton’s address tonight and runs all day tomorrow.

The Sun’s Phoebe Sweet tells us that Reid wants to set the stage for energy policy heading into the Democratic convention next week, though some Republicans deride the event as too little, too late. (Senate Republicans just posted this YouTube video saying Reid should heed Pickens’ support for oil drilling.)

As Obama spoke in Reno about renewable energy and putting solar panels “all throughout the state, everywhere,” I couldn’t help but think of my Saturday story about the folks in rural Lincoln County objecting to a proposed wind farm that could impede their access to prime elk and deer hunting grounds.

Similar aesthetic objections to wind energy turbines are mounting nationwide, even in liberal strongholds. Many see this as the new environmental battleground. (The Sun’s unscientific reader poll shows turbines winning over views, with nearly 300 votes cast so far.)

What will become of Nevada’s delegation at the Republican convention? The Republican National Committee has rejected the state party’s delegates for St. Paul following the uproar by the unchosen Ron Paul delegates. What a way for a battleground state to head to the national convention.

The national committee is expected to sort it all out next week, days before the convention starts in Minneapolis. State party chairman Sue Lowden issued this release late Friday, and thanks to Ralston for posting:

“We have every intention of moving forward with our delegation and are prepared to be seated at the National Convention. Our delegation’s bags are packed and we look forward to casting our vote for the next President of the United States, John McCain.”

Lastly, if you haven’t been reading Sun reporter J. Patrick Coolican’s tales from the Intermountain West, today would be a good day to start. He and the crew are road-tripping to Denver, collecting stories along the way about the big issues confronting the West (think immigration, natural resources).

His Sunday story from Phoenix looks at the political effects of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s tough anti-immigration policies. Hispanics live in fear of the long-serving lawman’s “aggressive tactics aimed at sweeping up illegal immigrants,” Coolican writes.

While the sheriff’s work is popular among the state’s conservatives, it may pose trouble for Republicans going forward as Hispanics become increasingly eligible to vote.

There are lots of comparisons to the backlash California’s Republicans suffered from the growing Hispanic community in that state after the Proposition 187 battles of the 1990s.

And lots of lessons to consider in Nevada.

That’s about it for now, from D.C. Check back later today for updates from the road on Winning the West, and from the rest of us at the Early Line.