Nevada’s Democrats book a date with some Hawkeyes

What happens in Vegas begins in Iowa -- at least for the state’s Democrats.

Wary of a repeat of the 2004 Democratic caucuses, in which unprepared organizers were overwhelmed by a record turnout, the Nevada Democratic Party is drafting veterans of Iowa’s famous caucuses to direct its Jan. 19 nominating campaign -- including building a new precinct-level organization and adapting a computerized tabulation system initially designed for Iowa.

The party plans to spend more than $2 million as Nevada moves to second on the 2008 Democratic primary/caucus calendar in an effort to reverse its largely irrelevant past role in determining the party’s presidential front-runner. Organizers say they expect up to 100,000 of the state’s 494,000 registered Democrats to take part, an exponential increase over the 8,000 who turned out in 2004 -- itself a record.

“It definitely will be much bigger than last time around,” said Jean M. Hessburg, the former Iowa Democratic Party executive director hired to oversee the Nevada caucus. “Being one of the first four early states does gin up turnout beyond anyone’s experience in Nevada.”

Unwilling to cede the national spotlight and local organizing edge, Nevada Republican leaders agreed informally last month to move their caucus to Jan. 19. The shift is expected to be ratified at the state central committee meeting April 21, during which new state leaders also are expected to be elected. Party officials have begun raising the $2 million they think their caucus will cost, but little organizing has been done yet.

The Democrats are already well on their way, fueled in part by a growing sense of confidence that they can turn the state’s five electoral votes -- which Bush won by about 20,000 votes in 2004 -- from red to blue come November 2008.

“People feel that we have a real opportunity to take the White House back,” said Sandy LaPalm, 47, a volunteer Democratic precinct chair in Elko County. “Seeing the change in Congress has really energized a lot of people.”

In late March, the party hired Travis Brock, a former political director for the Iowa Democratic Party, as its executive director, augmenting the earlier hires of Hessburg and Jayson Sime, Iowa’s 2004 Democratic field and canvass director, to build and run the caucus system. The party is also trying to match up Nevada’s 17 county chairs with counterparts in Iowa under an informal “buddy” system, so each Nevada chair will have a personal -- and experienced -- advisor, Sime said.

The caucuses also will be much more geographically diffuse than in the past, Sime said. Traditionally, the party holds all of a county’s precinct caucuses at one central site. Come January, it hopes to run caucuses at scores of sites around the state -- down to the precinct level in urban settings such as Las Vegas and in centralized locations in rural areas such as Elko County, which covers more than 17,000 square miles of northeast Nevada.

Michael Sloan, who assembled the caucus fundraising team, said the party has already raised about $200,000 and is expecting significant help from the state’s unions. But Sime said the key to building the caucus system lies in the county chairs, who will determine how many caucus sites will be needed in their counties.

Last weekend, state party officials settled on rules governing the caucuses, and local chairs have begun organizing the estimated 2,000 volunteers Sime predicts will be needed to run caucuses in the state’s 1,737 precincts. Next up: training sessions, though some organizers fear the process might be moving too quickly.

“I have to remind folks that it’s still early in the process,” said Hessburg, who divides her time between Nevada and her job with the Iowa State Education Assn.

But some Democrats are champing at the bit -- and surprised by what they’re finding. A few weeks ago, the Elko County Democratic Party announced that it would start lining up volunteers at its regular March meeting at the Red Lion casino. For local Democrats -- who are outnumbered 2 to 1 by Republicans -- it was like a spymaster’s summons to come in from the cold.

“There were people that walked through that door who were Democrats, and that you never knew,” said Duane Jones, owner of an outdoor clothing store who volunteered to chair his precinct’s caucus. “It’s nice to be around some people with the same feelings and who have the same views.”

It is in places like Elko County where the Democrats hope to make their biggest inroads -- in part because such places have been dominated by Republicans for years.

Democrats have long been equated here with positions on the environment and public land management that the dominant conservative voices believe threaten the local economy and conflict with individual property rights.

The tensions have led to showdowns with law enforcement, including the 2000 “Shovel Brigade” in which several hundred anti-government activists tried to defy federal rulings and restore a section of dirt road that had been washed out at Jarbridge, a remote enclave near the Idaho border. Democrats who tried to speak at public meetings were often shouted down

Many Democrats retreated into the woodwork, choosing silence over confrontation. Now, with broad national dissatisfaction with the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, local Democrats are becoming more visible, and active.

Reece Keener, head of the Elko County Republican Party, has been watching the surge of local Democratic activity warily.

“Nationwide the Democrats are emboldened by the progress made in the last election,” Keener said at the Print ‘N Copy shop he runs with his wife. “For years the local Democratic Party hadn’t done a lot, and I think it’s probably going to be a lot more active ... but the economy here revolves around mining, and the Democrats have made it hard for the mining industry.”

But he’s glad his party is moving up its caucuses too, if for no other reason than to steal some of the national spotlight from the Democrats, who held high-profile candidate forums in Carson City in February and in Las Vegas in March.

“It would have been silly to ignore this,” Keener said, “and let the Democrats have all their candidates parading through the state.”

scott.martelle@latimes.com