Daskas gets help for run against Porter

U.S. House hopeful Robert Daskas slipped in and out of Washington last week for meetings with Democratic strategists and interests helping him raise money to run against incumbent Republican Rep. Jon Porter.

Daskas was in on Tuesday and out on Wednesday, four days after he announced his candidacy on Nov. 29.

The former Clark County chief deputy district attorney met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other party leaders. Democrats are looking to Daskas, 41, as the one who might topple Porter, a three-term incumbent they came close to beating in 2006.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., hosted a breakfast fundraiser for Daskas on Wednesday at Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill.

Admission ranged from $500 to $5,000 for the sit-down meal of bacon, eggs, potatoes, muffins and coffee (or juice), according to an attendee.

About 40 donors showed up on a morning when traffic was snarled by snowfall, according to three participants. Daskas campaign manager Heather Urban said the event was expected to bring in $50,000.

Besides Reid, encouraging remarks about Daskas were made by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"It was a great opportunity for him to introduce himself and to talk to people about his candidacy and his desire to continue his public service," Urban said.

PAUL DOLLARS

William Pennell was surprised Friday when included in his change from a local convenience store was a $10 bill covered in "Ron Paul for President" stamps.

The bill, which Pennell showed to the Review-Journal, was rubber-stamped on the front and back.

A bartender at a Las Vegas Applebee's, Pennell said it's not the first time he's seen bills festooned with graffiti promoting the renegade Republican candidate.

They turn up in his change till in varying denominations with some regularity, he said. But it wasn't until Friday that it occurred to him to wonder: Isn't it illegal to deface U.S. currency?

"He's not even in office, and he's breaking the law?" Pennell said of Paul. Pennell described himself as a disaffected Republican who favors Democrat Barack Obama.

U.S. currency is one of Paul's signature issues. But his campaign was quick to distance itself from the desecrated dollars.

"I don't think we can approve of something that's damaging to U.S. currency," Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said. "It sounds like something that's creeping up through the grass roots."

Paul does, however, believe that current monetary policy violates the Constitution and a return to gold- and silver-backed money is needed. It's not the first time rogue elements have sought to put him on money, either.

Last month, the FBI raided an Indiana group that was making and circulating gold, silver and copper coins with Paul's face on them. The government says alternative currencies are illegal, although the group disagrees.

On the other hand, writing on banknotes may not be a violation of the law. Under U.S. Code, "whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates" bank bills must do so "with intent to render such bank bill ... unfit to be reissued" to be subject to punishment.

That suggests that, if the person writing on the dollar isn't trying to make it unusable, he's not breaking the law, said Richard Shields, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office of the U.S. Secret Service.

"We certainly wouldn't go and pick anybody up for it," he said.

COAL COMFORT

Santa Claus dropped off a special gift for Sen. Harry Reid on Wednesday at the annual holiday party he shares with Sen. John Ensign for their staffs.

Ensign presented a box from which Reid pulled out his present: a chunk of coal. The gag was deemed fitting considering Reid's relentless campaign this year against building power plants in Nevada that would burn coal for fuel.

Ensign insisted the piece of coal was decidedly a chunk, and not a lump. Giving Harry Reid a lump of coal would have carried a different message altogether.

DEMOCRATIC GALA

All the presidential candidates and Reid have agreed to appear at a meeting of the Clark County Democratic Party on Jan. 12, according to the group's chairman, John Hunt.

To accommodate all that star power, the event will be held in the Cashman Center, he said. It will undoubtedly be a hot ticket, coming just four days after the New Hampshire primary and a week before Nevada's Jan. 19 caucuses.

Nevada Democrats are exultant about the way the nominating calendar has (finally) shaken out: Since New Hampshire picked Jan. 8, that leaves 11 days between the Granite State primary and Nevada, the next significant Democratic contest.

To drive home the point, the state party has printed up "11 Days of Nevada" stickers.

The county party under Hunt has increased its visibility, notably on Nov. 15, when it hosted a dinner after the CNN debate in Las Vegas that all the candidates attended. Hunt said that event netted the party about $110,000.

POLLS GALORE

As the presidential nominating contests draw nigh -- as of today, it is 24 days to Iowa, 29 days to New Hampshire and 40 to the biggest day in Nevada presidential history -- polls are everywhere.

One unscientific survey was up on the Review-Journal's Web site for the Democratic debate in Las Vegas last month. Nearly 4,000 people voted on the question, "Who do you think fared the best in the Democratic presidential debate at UNLV?"

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was the clear winner, with 28 percent. Obama was second with 19 percent, 24 votes ahead of Hillary Clinton, who also scored 19 percent. Placing a respectable fourth was 16-percenter Joe Biden. In last place, faring worse than Dennis Kucinich and Chris Dodd, was John Edwards.

Online polls are not worth the paper they're printed on for a variety of reasons, one of them being that a particular campaign can instruct its supporters to flock to a particular site, distorting the results. The Richardson campaign says it didn't do that.

Nearly as curious in its findings was an American Research Group poll released last week. The statewide survey of 600 purported participants on each side of the aisle found 29 percent of caucus-goers would support Mitt Romney, 23 percent Mike Huckabee and 17 percent Rudy Giuliani.

The Republican field is unsettled, but those numbers are out of sync with most other state polling, including a Review-Journal poll conducted last week that put Giuliani ahead.

On the Democratic side, New Hampshire-based ARG found Clinton widening her lead, rather than slipping. She had 45 percent to Obama's 18 and Edwards' 14.

One oddity of ARG's polls is that they include independent voters, who are unlikely to attend party caucuses, in their polling sample.

Richardson may have won the Las Vegas debate in a few people's minds, but in ARG's poll, he had just 2 percent support.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2919. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau chief Steve Tetreault at STetreault@stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760.