A raucous caucus on the Strip

Cocktail waitresses in sequins; chefs in tall, white toques; and maids in ruffled aprons streamed into ballrooms along the Strip. Black voters packed a community center in north Las Vegas. Latinos came out like never before.

Nevadans had their first turn at center stage in the presidential nominating season Saturday, and they flocked to the caucuses here like keno players to a $4 buffet. They waved signs and introduced rollicking chants and exotic work-wear into what is a rather staid tradition in other states.

But the appearance of about 116,000 Democratic voters also threatened to overwhelm workers at some of the more than 500 Democratic caucus sites. That created delays and scattered complaints, and drove away some voters before they could participate. Republicans also drew record attendance, more than 44,000, although their nonbinding vote had brought less attention from the party’s presidential contenders and the media.

The outpouring of interest and emotion at the sessions on the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend showed that, even in a state previously known for its low voter participation, interest in the Democratic presidential contest is particularly intense. The caucuses, which took an hour or more, followed record turnouts in previous Democratic contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“It was pretty incredible considering we had 9,000 people turn out statewide in 2004,” said Kirsten Searer, deputy executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party. With Nevada holding its earliest-ever presidential caucuses in a particularly competitive year, Searer said, “our state got a lot more attention from the Democratic candidates, and I just think Democrats nationwide are more motivated. We’ve got such a great field of candidates.”

The caucuses appeared to accomplish another goal of Democratic officials -- to give an early primary-season voice to minority voters. At nine special “at large” caucus sites along the Strip, set up to allow employees to vote without missing work, large numbers of African American and Latino voters turned out.

John Taddeo, a host at the Tryst nightclub at the Wynn Las Vegas resort, had worked into the wee hours the night before. About seven hours later and without any sleep, he dragged himself to the caucus at the hotel’s massive Lafite Ballroom and threw his support to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

“I just wanted to be a part of it,” said Taddeo, 23, who wore a giant diamond in one ear and a black polo shirt with turned-up collar. “It’s something interesting to do, to be a part of history.”

Also caucusing inside the ballroom was liveried room-service waiter Dale Herd. Like almost all the others, Herd was attending his first caucus.

“Normally you just go into a booth and vote,” said Herd, who sided with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. “But this is exciting, to be able to come out and really show who you are for in public. I like it.”

Party officials had been scheduled to finish registering caucusgoers and begin the sessions at 11:30 a.m. But at some locations, including the Wynn, some of those bused in from neighboring hotel/casinos did not arrive until minutes before the deadline. The Wynn caucus was delayed about 50 minutes.

At least a handful of workers left in exasperation, saying they had already taken as much time away from their posts as their bosses would allow. “This is just not done very well,” said Danous Sears, who rushed back to her job at a fragrance shop. “It’s not right.”

Those who remained waited, chanting boisterously and some taunting good- naturedly. At times standing nearly chest to chest, Clinton and Obama supporters called back and forth: “Hil-la-ry, Hil-la-ry!”, “O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma!” A shrill whistle punctuated the Obama chorus.

In the room filled with nearly 400 registered voters, a lonely gaggle of eight backers of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards huddled in the middle. With less than the 15% support deemed necessary for a candidate to remain “viable,” the Edwards backers soon were told they had to throw their lots in with the two top Democrats, or leave. (Three jumped to Obama, two went to Clinton, and three gave up the contest.)

The ballroom finally settled into its final vote when the remaining undecideds, young hairdressers at the hotel salon, decided to go to Obama. They handed in their paper ballots and scurried out the door, rushing to meet their 1 p.m. clients.

That wasn’t quite enough to tip the balance. The final tally at the Wynn: Clinton 189, Obama 187.

By the time Ron Parker, a veteran of Iowa politics brought in to chair the event, announced that the contest had gone to Clinton, almost all workers were gone. The results translated into 40 delegates for Clinton and 39 for Obama. The delegates will attend county conventions that will be the first step in picking representatives for the Democratic National Convention in August.

As the caucus at the Wynn was about to start, Obama’s national field director, Temo Figueroa, had appeared buoyant, suggesting the candidate had a strong organization at the new resort and some of the neighboring casino properties.

Commentators had believed that the at-large caucuses would be Obama strongholds, after the candidate won the endorsement of the powerful 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union. But by the end of the afternoon, seven of the nine at-large precincts had gone to Clinton, and she had an estimated 268 delegates at those locations, compared with Obama’s 224.

Obama appeared to suffer, in part, because union members like Jose Bosque defied their union to choose Clinton.

“A few guys tried to push the people for Obama,” said Bosque, 52, before hurrying back to his job busing tables at the Wynn. “But we can all have different beliefs. This is a big country, and there is room for other opinions. When Bill Clinton was president, things were good. Maybe we can continue that.”

Latinos like Bosque appeared to turn out heavily for Clinton, while African Americans solidly backed Obama. The latter pattern was evident in a pair of heavily black precincts about eight miles north of the Strip.

Obama took those caucuses by 3-to-1 ratios or better over the New York senator. A black crowd that included many older voters cited the civil rights struggle as a prime motivation for their votes -- a thought with even deeper resonance as the Rev. King’s birthday was being celebrated.

“Our forefathers, and the people who came before us, would be happy to see how far we’ve come,” Marcellus Price, 61, a hospital chaplain, said at the north Las Vegas gathering. “My wife and I were talking, either way it’s going to be history. If you asked me 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought in my lifetime we would have seen this.”

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james.rainey@latimes.com

scott.martelle@latimes.com

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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Democratic debate

The Democratic presidential candidates will take part in a debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute on Monday in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The two-hour event will be broadcast at 5 p.m. PST on CNN.