Democrats plan another Obama push

In 2008, Barack Obama won Nevada by 12.5 percentage points, an unexpected margin of victory thanks largely to Hispanics and other minorities who strongly backed the nation's first black president on his way to the White House.

Democrats are aiming for a similar overwhelming showing for his re-election in 2012, said party leaders from Nevada and across the country who met during the weekend in Washington, D.C. Over a couple of days, they began laying the groundwork for another major voter registration drive, especially focused on signing up minorities, women and the young.

State Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, came away from the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting jazzed about Obama's prospects in 2012 given Nevada's minority population growth this past decade, according to new U.S. Census figures.

"There's a lot of excitement and energy, and there will be as much of an effort this time as there was in 2008," Horsford said by telephone Saturday after he left the meeting. "It will be aggressive."

Horsford, the first black majority leader of the state Senate and a Democratic national committeeman, noted that Census numbers released last week showed tremendous growth among Hispanics and Asians in Nevada from 2000 to 2010, with the number of African-Americans ticking up as well. Overall, the state's population grew at a record 35.1 percent for a total of 2.7 million people.

Nevada is now nearly half minority and Latino.

Hispanics now make up 26.5 percent of the population, or 716,501 people for an 82 percent jump since 2000. In 2008, Latinos were key to Obama's victory in Nevada, with 76 percent of them voting for him, according to the Pew Hispanics Center. Overall, Hispanics made up 15 percent of the electorate in 2008 and 2010, after their voter registration jumped by 45 percent.

Asians also are becoming a greater political force, more than doubling their numbers in Nevada to make up 7.1 percent of the population now, according to the Census. African-Americans slightly outnumber Asians now at 7.7 percent of the state's makeup.

Horsford said he spoke about the upcoming presidential race and Nevada's role in Obama's re-election strategy with Tim Kaine, head of the Democratic National Committee. Kaine told Horsford and other Democratic leaders that the party would work hard, as it did in 2008, to reach out to young, female and minority voters. Kaine recently visited Nevada to get the lay of the land, Horsford said.

"Those are initiatives Governor Kaine is very committed to," Horsford said of the former Virginia governor. "He's committed to providing the resources to states for voter registration, ensuring that we continue to engage young voters and that we do everything to reach out to young women, Latinos, African-Americans and Asians."

In 2008, the Democratic Party registered 100,000 new voters in Nevada, tipping the state into blue territory. The party maintains a 60,000 registered voter edge over Republicans, who dominate rural and Northern Nevada.

A swing state, Nevada is considered a bellwether when it comes to presidential elections. During the past 100 years, the state has voted for the winning presidential candidate every time except once, when it rejected Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Nevada also is now an important early voting state, holding its Democratic Party and GOP caucuses in February following the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary that are early tests of a presidential candidate's strength.

No Republicans have formally announced they are running for president yet, leaving the field fairly wide open. Early polls suggest Obama would be able to beat nearly all the potential GOP contenders, although the election remains far out.

Kaine told the DNC meeting on Saturday that the party is shooting for an Obama rout. And he said the president's re-election bid would kick off sometime during the second quarter of 2011, or during the spring.

"We're going to play for the big win," Kaine said, according to The Hill, a daily congressional newspaper. "We're going to play in every corner of this country."

-- Laura Myers

SPENDING DEBATE

The liberal Americans United for Change misfired last week when it accused Nevada Republican Reps. Dean Heller and Joe Heck of voting to kill a $34 million bus grant for Las Vegas.

The group, along with Organized Karma, a Las Vegas grass-roots partner, said deep spending cuts passed by the GOP-controlled U.S. House this month put at risk federal funds for the Sahara Express rapid transit bus line.

Heller and Heck "opt to lay off construction workers and increase traffic congestion" was the grabber headline in the groups' news release.

The grant was awarded to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada through a Department of Transportation economic stimulus program that would be zeroed out by the spending cut bill.

But a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said funding for the Las Vegas express buses was obligated last year, and would not be affected. Aides to Nevada lawmakers from both parties confirmed it after checking with relevant House committees.

The Regional Transportation Commission held a groundbreaking for the Sahara Avenue bus line last Thursday . RTC communications director Tracy Bower said the idea that the funds might be at risk never came up.

While the Las Vegas project would be unaffected, the spending bill was poised to pull funding from dozens of other stimulus-funded transportation and economic development projects whose grants had not been finalized.

The intent of GOP budget cutters was to take back unspent stimulus funds in the name of deficit reductions. According to the legislation, the cut to the so-called TIGER grant program was to be $650 million.

When the matter was debated in the House, Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., offered an amendment to give the Department of Transportation until September to finalize grants, but it was defeated by voice vote.

The Nevada Republicans defended the aim at unspent stimulus funds, saying debt reduction was a better use for the money.

"Reclaiming unspent stimulus money is one way to drive down the debt and begin addressing our government's spending problem," Heck said.

Heller aide Stewart Bybee said, "Getting spending under control and addressing the debt is critical to creating an environment conducive to economic recovery."

On the other hand, Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley said through her spokesman that cutting stimulus funds meant to jump-start development was short-sighted.

"She opposes cuts that will take funding away from transportation projects that put Americans back to work," David Cherry said.

-- Steve Tetreault

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers @review journal.com or 702-387-2919. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault @stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.