CARSON CITY -- There was no rest for the Democrats on Thursday.

With Wednesday's presidential candidate forum seen as a success, there was no time to bask in glory or rest on laurels. It was time to look ahead to the next such gathering, scheduled to be held in just a month's time, and a third in August in Reno, which was generating controversy.

The March 24 event will be the first held in Las Vegas. Sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal think tank, it is to focus on health care issues and take place at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack had agreed to attend as of Thursday, the center said. Aides to U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd said he had not yet confirmed that he would be at the event, although he did not have a scheduling conflict for that day.

The forum is scheduled to be moderated by Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine. Details of the format had not been released Thursday, and no national broadcast partner was yet on board.

All was not rosy for the Democrats on Thursday as a liberal activist group protested the selection of the Fox News channel as the broadcast partner for the Reno debate scheduled for Aug. 14.

MoveOn.org on Thursday sent its members an e-mail urging them to pressure the state Democratic Party to drop Fox News. "Fox is a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel. The Democratic Party of Nevada should drop Fox as its partner for the presidential primary debate," the group's petition stated.

Nevada Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Searer responded in a prepared statement: "The debate in August is not an endorsement of Fox. Instead, it is an effort to reach out to Fox viewers. We will not win elections if we don't win over new people."

MoveOn.org's Adam Green issued a counter-statement saying, "Everybody supports reaching out to new people. But 365 days a year, Fox smears Democrats and spreads lies while operating under the guise of being a trustworthy news source."

The Aug. 14 debate is slated to focus on Western issues. It is co-sponsored by the Western Majority Project and the Democratic Party organizations of other Western states.

Despite the uncertainty about the future, Wednesday's forum, which drew national attention as the first such event of the 2008 campaign, got good reviews from all quarters. All of the candidates but Obama attended.

"It's great that they came. It's great for the state," Republican political consultant Pete Ernaut said Thursday. "I'm absolutely green with jealousy that we Republicans haven't followed suit" by scheduling an early 2008 caucus as the Democrats did. "But we're working hard at remedying that, and I'm very confident Republicans will have caucuses organized for 2008 as well."

By the bylaws of the Republican National Committee, Nevada may not hold a presidential nominating caucus before Feb. 5. Twenty states tentatively are scheduled to hold Republican nominating caucuses on or before Feb. 5.

"I think it went off without a hitch," Searer said of Wednesday' forum. "We got a lot of positive feedback from the media and the candidates."

Asked whether future events bringing candidates together could hope to create as much stir as the first one, she said, "It did get some attention just because it was the first, but I think it's becoming clear that candidates are going to take Nevada seriously. The national media is very intrigued to find out how the candidates will campaign in Nevada and how Nevada voters will respond."