Nevadans stick with Clinton

The primaries might be finished. The pundits and the delegate count might be saying the Democratic nomination belongs to Barack Obama. But to Chris Giunchigliani, the Democratic race is not over.

"I plan on still going to the convention as a Hillary delegate," Giunchigliani, a Clark County commissioner who was a leader of Hillary Clinton's Nevada campaign, said Tuesday night as the polls were closing in South Dakota and Montana, the last states to vote in six months of nominating contests.

"It ain't over till it's over," she said.

It's over, she contended, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, when the delegates' votes are truly cast. Giunchigliani was elected as a delegate during last month's state Democratic convention.

"I'm not in denial," she said. "Anything can happen between now and August. People need to realize that. It still comes down to who can make the case to lead, and I believe Hillary is that person."

With Clinton not exiting the race Tuesday, her top supporters in Nevada vowed to remain loyal and to follow her lead.

Meanwhile, Obama's support in the state continued to grow as superdelegates saw the end of the primaries as a signal to line up behind him.

Sam Lieberman, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party, said Tuesday night it was time to get on board. "I think he is the right person at the right time to unify the party, and I think that we need to begin the process of healing the Democratic Party and moving on towards victory in November," he said.

Also signing on to Obama Tuesday night was state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

"Through a unified party we will defeat John McCain in November," Cortez Masto said in a statement, referring to the presumptive Republican nominee. "I look forward to working with Senator Obama to create positive change for the citizens of Nevada and the United States."

That put five Nevada superdelegates in Obama's column compared to two for Clinton and one, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, still not showing his cards. He said he would announce his allegiance by the end of the week.

But Clinton's top supporters in Nevada were sticking by her Tuesday night, even as they acknowledged the need to bring the party together around a nominee.

Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, signed on with Clinton after an intense courtship from several candidates who saw him as the key to the Hispanic vote in Nevada -- a vote he helped deliver to Clinton by about a two-thirds margin, according to exit polls after the Jan. 19 caucuses.

"Personally, I am with Senator Clinton until she officially announces she's out of the race," Kihuen said. "I'm still with her to the end."

But Kihuen admitted the end appears nigh and appears to be in Obama's favor.

"It looks like Obama will be obtaining the nomination, which is fine," he said. "I think he'd make a fine president. But for now, my candidate is still in it."

Kihuen became involved in the Clinton campaign, something he says he did for his constituents, both the district he represents in the Assembly and the greater Hispanic community. Many of those voters are still devoted to Clinton and believe in her, Kihuen said.

The Puerto Rico primary over the weekend, which Clinton won by a wide margin, "was a perfect indicator that Obama has a problem with Hispanic voters, and I think he acknowledges that," Kihuen said. "If he is going to win the presidency he has to get the Hispanic vote, particularly in the West. He has a problem right now, but with a good grass-roots effort, including voter education and voter mobilization, I think we could pull it off -- I should say, he could pull it off."

The presidential race has already taken a curious path in Nevada, which was moved to a prestigious slot in the calendar, right after Iowa and New Hampshire, for the first time in 2008.

Early polls in the state showed Clinton with a formidable lead, as they did nationally, but Obama's Jan. 3 win in Iowa scrambled the equation. Clinton came back to edge him out in New Hampshire and to win Nevada, where she once polled a 40-point lead, by 6 percentage points.

It was a bitterly fought campaign down to the wire, especially for the 11 days between New Hampshire and Nevada. Bill and Hillary Clinton, Obama, and John Edwards stumped tirelessly throughout the state, while the powerful Culinary union, after a late Obama endorsement, struggled to mobilize its members, many of whom ended up choosing Clinton. A record 118,000 people turned out for the Democratic caucuses, far exceeding expectations.

Yet Clinton's victory on Jan. 19, her only win in a caucus state, was not clear-cut. Although she won the majority of the precinct delegates chosen in Nevada, the process was not over.

The precinct delegates went on to county conventions in February, including one in Clark County that had to be called off and restarted after the Clinton and Obama campaigns jammed a too-small facility with their supporters. The counties elected delegates to the state convention last month.

Because the national delegates are weighted toward rural and Northern Nevada, places Obama was strongest, and because Obama's support apparently grew in Nevada since the caucuses, Obama came out of the state convention with more pledged national delegates than Clinton, 14 to 11.

A leader of Obama's Nevada campaign, state Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said Tuesday he thought unity would be achieved.

"His policies are not very different from Senator Clinton's," he said. "They both ran very strong, very effective campaigns. I believe we will unite behind Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee and that we will deliver not just the Democrats but the independents, the newly engaged voters and the Republicans disenchanted with their party."

Both Obama and McCain visited Nevada last week, an indicator of the state's battleground status in the fall, noted University of Nevada, Reno political scientist Eric Herzik.

"I think Hillary Clinton will take a few days or a week and build that bridge to Obama," he said. "Then they work on soothing her ego, bringing her followers into the camp. What are the stages of grief? First comes denial. Then comes anger."

But Herzik said Democrats in Nevada have reason to be optimistic.

"I think they have plenty of time to rally behind Barack Obama," largely because the candidates have such similar stances on core Democratic issues, he said.

Former Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, a Clinton supporter, said for even the most ardent Clinton supporters, it would come down to the issues.

"I was very passionately devoted to her, but I think what's at stake in November, particularly when you look at the Supreme Court, I think we need a change of direction in D.C." she said. "Whoever the nominee is, I will support the Democratic nominee and do what I can do."

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