Nevada Dems Working to Lure Candidates

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070219/D8ND03DO1.html

Nevada Dems Working to Lure Candidates
Email this Story

Feb 19, 2:58 PM (ET)

By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY


LAS VEGAS (AP) - Forget the lore of Bugsy Siegel and the frolics of Paris Hilton. Nevada - long the wild child of American culture - is being repackaged as utterly ordinary. With its new, early presidential caucus next January, the state is attempting to lure presidential candidates to unfamiliar terrain. And state Democratic Party leaders are banking that the best way to do that is to emphasize strip malls over the Strip.

So it is that the list of Las Vegas "hot spots" compiled by the party includes two bagel shops, two breakfast joints and a sandwich shop in a strip mall. Anywhere that reality TV star Hilton may have placed a high heel didn't make the cut.

The list was included in a welcome packet sent to presidential campaigns in advance of Wednesday's candidate forum in Carson City, the first of the race. And it's part of a broader attempt to emphasize Nevada's heartland over its playland.


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, is greeted by supporters as he arrives at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. Obama railed against ``slash and burn'' politics in Washington in a brief stop in Nevada, his first since the Democrat declared his presidential ambitions. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The 44-page document includes notes on the practical and historical: a list of union hotels in Las Vegas (42) and the drive time from the airport to downtown Reno (eight minutes), for example.

FULL story at link.