A mailer produced for the primary campaign of Gov. Jim Gibbons won a Pollie award from the American Association of Political Consultants, which called it one of the cleverest political ads in the nation. Bill Richardson N.M. governor dives into Nevada

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson last week became the first presidential candidate to open an office in Las Vegas.

He tapped as his Nevada chairwoman a former staffer for the failed gubernatorial campaign of state Sen. Dina Titus, the campaign said.

Roberta Lange was the finance director of the Titus campaign and managed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's squeaker of a successful run for Senate in 1998. She currently serves as president of the Henderson Democratic Club.

Lange was on hand Thursday for the opening of Richardson's downtown Las Vegas office, where "Richardson for Nevada" pins were available.

Nevada is becoming a good job market for Democratic operatives. Also last week, former vice presidential nominee John Edwards announced the hiring of Nevada political director Roberto Rodriguez, field director Preston Elliot, trip director Oscar Lopez and regional field director Kelly Harlow. All four staffers previously worked outside Nevada.

Among the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama also have hired Nevada staff.

None of the candidates have campaigned in Nevada since attending a forum in Carson City last month. But Nevada Democratic spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said the staffing efforts proved they would have a presence.

DOWNING BEERS

A political ad slamming state Sen. Bob Beers was one of the cleverest in the country last campaign season, according to the American Association of Political Consultants.

The group gave one of its annual Pollie awards to a mailer produced for the primary campaign of Gov. Jim Gibbons. The flier pictured a beer mug full of foam and the words, "Bob Beers: All Froth. No Substance."

The ad was created by Bieber Communications and Jim Denton Associates. Denton, a Las Vegas-based political consultant, said the idea for the ad came from a conference call that included Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven and strategist Grant Hewitt, and the ad's copy was written by Denton's wife and partner, Dani Denton.

The back side of the mailer shows the beer mug tipped over and empty. It describes Beers' record of voting for tax increases and encourages voters to choose "real Republican" Gibbons.

HOOKED ON NEVADA

Terry McAuliffe surveyed the landscape from Las Vegas last week and liked what he saw.

"I do believe the future of our party is out here in these Southwestern states," McAuliffe, the premier Democratic fundraiser and former head of the Democratic National Committee, said.

McAuliffe is chairing Clinton's presidential campaign and promoting a new memoir. Notorious for an exuberance that borders on mania, McAuliffe has two differently colored eyes and gelled-back gray hair.

In an interview, he said he supported the new early Democratic caucus the DNC has designated for Nevada. "I love Iowa and New Hampshire -- I think they're great states -- but there's no diversity in those states to speak of," he said.

"When you have 92 percent of the African-American vote supporting your party and 70 percent of the Hispanic community, you've got to let them have an early say," he said.

The extreme front-loading of the primary calendar, he said, will give the early states even more influence. "February 5, it's over," he said, referring to the so-called Giga-Tuesday on which more than a dozen states plan to hold presidential nominating contests.

"Mark my words. Write it down. It's over," he said. "So Nevada takes on so much more significance, because it's going to be Iowa, and then Nevada."

McAuliffe had nice things to say about Clinton and disparaging words for the Republican field, including Sen. John McCain ("He's lost his way. Nobody knows where he stands"), former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani ("He's pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-immigration, pro-gun control, and you want to tell me that he's going to win a Republican primary?") and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ("Will people elect a Mormon from Massachusetts?").

Asked who deserved credit for last year's Democratic takeover of Congress, McAuliffe said: "The Republicans. Their failures helped us enormously. ... That car is in the ditch. The wheels are spinning. They're in a total meltdown."

DEMOCRAT GOES REPUBLICAN

Democratic consultant Gary Gray finds himself in a rare position this election cycle: He's trying to get a Republican elected.

Gray is managing the campaign of Stacie Truesdell, a Republican lawyer, in the crowded race for the Ward 5 council seat.

Gray has a policy of working only for Democrats, but that applies only to partisan races, he said. Las Vegas City Council candidates are not listed by party affiliation on the ballot.

"I've run about 200 races. Of that, I've been involved in four races that are nonpartisan, where clients are a Republican," he said.

The decision to work for Truesdell, the 26-year-old daughter of developer Richard Truesdell, was an easy one, he said: "I thought that Stacie was the best-qualified candidate."

Review-Journal writer David McGrath Schwartz contributed to this report. Contact political reporter Molly Ball at 387-2919 or MBall@reviewjournal.com.