The mood was exuberant at Saturday's state Democratic convention, as candidates and party faithful seemed confident that Republicans' mounting unpopularity would sweep the opposition party into office in November.

"George Bush and Republicans in Congress have put this country on the wrong track with their misplaced priorities," congressional candidate Tessa Hafen said to cheers from the crowd of delegates.

It was the first time Hafen, a former aide to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, has gone on the attack in earnest. Previously, she seemed intent on keeping things positive and not mentioning her opponent, Rep. Jon Porter, in speeches.

This time, however, Hafen charged Porter with "rubber-stamping the Bush agenda" and challenged him to call on Bush to extend the May 15 deadline by which seniors must sign up for the Medicare prescription drug program.

"Let's see if Jon Porter can use his close relationship with President Bush to do some good for Nevadans," Hafen said.

Although Democrats have high hopes for November, most political analysts say they face an uphill battle to retake either the House or the Senate this year. They need five additional Senate seats and 15 House seats to win control of Congress.

In the convention's keynote address, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Hispanic to lead that majority-minority city, predicted a "historic" year for Democrats.

In order to win, he said, Democrats need to stand for bold, big-picture ideas rather than poll-tested stances.

"We need to start thinking big again and facing up to our biggest challenges," Villaraigosa said.

Democrats, he said, should stand up for solving urban poverty, crime and homelessness; giving immigrants "an opportunity to share in the American dream"; and achieving universal health care.

"Access to health care ought to be a right in the greatest nation in the world," he said.

Speaking to reporters after Villaraigosa's speech, Reid said he supported both the call for boldness and the push for health care. He said he planned to make a speech about health care on the Senate floor on Monday.

"We can't keep ignoring (health care) just because it's a difficult issue," Reid said.

In August's primary, Democrats face a contentious choice between two gubernatorial candidates: Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson and state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus.

In his speech, Gibson laid out an education platform similar to the one Democratic legislators rolled out on Tuesday. The two plans share a call for performance-based pay and increased salaries for teachers as well as full-day kindergarten.

Gibson also proposed creating an endowment to ensure continued funding of the Millennium Scholarship, increasing the emphasis on math and science and expanding a literacy program he started in Henderson to the whole state.

"There's no sugarcoating the fact that our children are not getting the education they need to succeed," Gibson said. "The buck has passed around Carson City and through our school districts for far too long. Let me tell you, it stops right here with me."

He said he believes he could achieve his proposals without raising taxes.

Gibson, who is against abortion, also renewed his call for Nevada to become a leader in stem-cell research, which some activists believe is tantamount to ending a potential life because of the use of human embryos.

Titus highlighted the contrast between what she called her "true blue Democratic views" and Gibson's more moderate approach. Abortion was the first thing she discussed.

"I'm not afraid to be pro-choice, and I'm not ashamed to be pro-labor," she said.

Titus said other female Democrat governors in Republican-leaning states -- such as Arizona's Janet Napolitano and Kansas' Kathleen Sebelius -- prove she could win the November election.

"They didn't win those elections by trying to be Republican-lite," Titus said. "They won it by talking straight and getting it done."

Voters, Titus said, "are tired of platitudes and empty plans. They are tired of the same handful of people making decisions" for their own benefit.

Titus spent the bulk of her speech criticizing the Republican front-runner, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, but she referred to him as "Jim" repeatedly and hesitated tellingly in her conclusion.

"The more they find out about Jim ... Gibbons," she said, "the more they are going to find out that he is not the one to be governor of this state."

In an interview afterward, Titus said coyly, "Everybody trips on those two names" -- Jim Gibson, the Democrat, and Jim Gibbons, the Republican. "I was being very careful not to make that mistake."

Other major speakers at the convention included Jill Derby, who is running for the seat Gibbons is vacating in Congress, and U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, who faces only token opposition for re-election in her heavily Democratic district.

Berkley always can be counted on for some partisan indignation.

"When George Bush first ran for president, he said he was a compassionate conservative," Berkley said. "What he should have said is that he is an arrogant incompetent."

Democrats, she said, should go to the polls to throw out "a Congress filled with yes men who will not do their duty and demand accountability from an administration that is out of control and a defense secretary who should have been fired two years ago."

Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins was elected state party chairman at the event.