Edwards to sell ‘True Blue Majority’ message

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will return Saturday to Nevada, a state he says is among many he is better suited to win in November 2008 than his rivals for the nomination.

"My experience is that in states that are sometimes red, sometimes blue, the places where the results (of national elections) are determined ... the determination is made based on how a Democrat does in smaller towns and smaller communities," Edwards said in an interview Thursday. "I'm the candidate who can do well in those places. Nevada's a state I believe I could do well in in the general election for the same reasons."

The former North Carolina senator is scheduled to hold a town hall Saturday at 11 a.m. with workers and their families at the Carpenters union hall on Lamb Boulevard. It will be his 15th visit to the state.

The Carpenters union has endorsed Edwards at the national level and, with 12,000 members in Nevada, is one of the state's most politically active labor groups. Edwards said he expected the union to be a boon in mobilizing voters for the state's first-time early nominating caucuses in January.

"Having been through the caucus process in Iowa in 2004, I know that organizing on the ground, getting people to the caucus, is absolutely crucial to be successful. A group like the Carpenters has experience doing that."

Edwards' better-funded Democratic rivals, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, have hired more than 50 staffers in Nevada to get their own voters out. Although it recently increased its Nevada staff, the Edwards campaign can't match those numbers, but it seems to be counting on the unions to supply much of the legwork to help him in the caucuses.

The international union's general president, Doug McCarron, said political organizers from around the country are being trained at the Carpenters' Las Vegas facility. "We'll be working in Nevada very hard for John," he said.

McCarron said that while Iowa will be the crucial test because it is first, Nevada, with a larger percentage of union workers than most other states, would be the test of which candidate is preferred by labor.

"I think John can win that race," he said. "I think he will. We're going to do everything we can to make that happen."

Edwards' campaign has long sought to sell the former vice presidential nominee as a better general-election candidate than his rivals. But the emphasis on "electability" revved up this week, complete with a new slogan, "True Blue Majority."

The campaign cites polls that show Edwards beating the Republican contenders in hypothetical general-election matchups more frequently and by wider margins than Clinton and Obama, and Edwards supporters around the country are testifying to the idea that having their candidate atop the 2008 ticket would be better for Democrats.

Whether that's the case in Nevada is far from apparent. A recent Review-Journal poll found that 49 percent of the state's voters would not consider voting for Edwards for president if he were the Democratic candidate. That's more than the percentage that ruled out Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson but less than Clinton.

Asked what makes him more electable, Edwards cited his rural, working-class roots, saying Democrats can't win if only big-city voters favor them.

"I'm the Democratic candidate who's actually won in a red state. I beat an incumbent Republican to get elected to the U.S. Senate," he said. "I grew up in a rural, small-town community, so I have a natural connection to people in those parts of America that are crucial to winning in battleground states."

Edwards declined to speculate about why such voters might not like Clinton or Obama. "What I can speak to is my candidacy, my strength," he said.

To prove his claim about the general election, of course, Edwards will first have to become the Democratic nominee, an uphill battle against an increasingly entrenched Clinton lead. In Nevada, a recent poll put his support among likely caucus goers at just 9 percent, closer to Richardson's 8 percent than to Obama's 21 percent or Clinton's 39 percent.

Edwards said since the Nevada early contest is new, pollsters can't reliably determine who will vote in it, whereas in Iowa, people can be surveyed who have a history of participating. Iowa polling shows the race much closer.

On issues such as health care, the environment and taxes, Edwards is seen as positioning himself to the left of Obama and Clinton, with his aggressive pitch to labor another part of his aim to capture liberal Democratic primary voters. He said he was not concerned that independent voters might find his reliance on unions distasteful.

"My policy ideas all revolve around strengthening the middle class. The strength of the union movement is part of that," he said.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2919.