January 17, 2008

You are being insulted: Why aren’t candidates campaigning in casinos?

By STEVE FRIESS

Over the past week, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have appeared in the following Nevada locations: Two Mexican restaurants. The Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall. The Culinary Union Hall (twice). Two predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. Two high schools and two junior high schools. Cashman Center. The Reno Events Center. A community center in Carson City. A church.

Umm, what state is this again? Notice anything missing here?

Now, compare and contrast. Suppose a hotly contested first-in-the-West primary with major potential consequences for deciding the nominee of a major political party were happening in, say, Washington. Would not Clinton and Obama be showing up for hard-hat tours of Boeing or pocket-protector tours of Microsoft?

Behold, kind Las Vegans. You are being insulted. You may not realize it, but the candidates find the workplaces and famous scenery of your city to be beneath them, an embarrassment, a political liability. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn, in fact, that when the candidates seek out neighborhoods to canvass, some campaign strategist vets the streets in question to ensure the Las Vegas Strip is barely visible. (Damn that ubiquitous Stratosphere Tower, but squint and a geography-impaired nation will think it’s the Space Needle anyway.)

“I keep waiting to see Barack come through our casino waving and shaking hands, maybe toss some future presidential dice,” says a card-dealing friend at one of the locals-focused Station casinos. “Why wouldn’t they come here? We’re voters, too.”

The Obama campaign wouldn’t answer this question, but Clinton’s Nevada spokeswoman, Hilarie Grey, offers an interesting explanation. Grey says the trouble is that in a caucus with a short schedule, unlike a primary that would have weeks of early voting, the campaign must spend its money and time on places where they are more certain there are committed Democrats who will turn out. “I don’t know that ... a retail stop [in a casino] would be a net positive,” she says.

A “net positive”? Clearly, the campaigns worry about what such visuals would do to the wholesome, presidential look of the candidates. Or maybe they’re just scared that when they go on and on ad nauseam about making change, blah blah blah, some wiseacre who’s had one too many free cocktails might finally stand up and say, “Hey, if you want change, there are bill-breakers all over the place here!”

Jon Ralston, the uber-pundit who has gotten at least as much national TV time this week as John Edwards, offers the sensible analysis here. “The only history I’m aware of here is that of Democratic and Republican candidates alike feeling comfortable going into casinos mostly quietly to raise money,” he says. If they went in to glad-hand for votes, “it’s much more an easy target for national media barbs.”

Yet some of that is just an inferiority complex that Las Vegas—and Reno and Hawthorne and Pahrump, too—just need to move past. This week, as the controversy erupted between the Culinary Union and the Nevada State Education Association over whether it’s legal for the Democratic Party to create precincts at hotel-casinos so as to enable thousands of resort workers to participate on January 19, Ralston lamented in his e-mail Flash that now we must brace for wide-scale mockery by the national press over the notion that we Nevadans vote in casinos.

I haven’t seen much of that since I’ve been busy tramping through boring venues with these candidates showing the world how incredibly dull and mundane our lives are, but I’m sure he’s right.

And yet I’ve got to wonder: So what? This is us. We bring joy, spice and entertainment to the world in a manner nobody else can. We don’t believe there’s anything immoral or inappropriate about gambling, and evidently neither does the rest of the country, since they both come here by the millions and want to build our cash cows in their blighted areas, too.

We are Nevada. We thrive on casinos. Say it loud, say it proud. So what if Jay Leno thinks it’s amusing?

Many people in the know don’t think this is such a big deal. In fact, they’re pleased as punch to prove that this state is more than its casinos, more than its tourism economy. They love that the candidates are visiting our Mexican restaurants and union halls, our high schools and hospitals, our tract-home subdivisions and military installations. And I don’t disagree; it is a rare and wonderful thing that so many facets of our lives are being exposed for this one intense week of international media coverage.

But one person who agrees with me entirely is Mayor Oscar Goodman. You know, the one politician in America who has proven that indulging in Las Vegas’ prurient offerings can actually increase someone’s popularity, at least here in Las Vegas. Which is, as Goodman astutely noted, where the campaign is centered this week.

“These people have to worry about Nevadans this week,” growls the mayor, a Democrat who says he’s not endorsing a candidate because—get this!—he doesn’t want them to taint him. “I say, when in Nevada, do as Nevadans do. They better walk into casinos, or else the people in casinos maybe shouldn’t vote for them. I think they’re idiots if they don’t go into casinos and be a part of our community when they’re out here asking for our vote. That’s our General Motors. The only difference is, we are successful.”

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