Obama gathering energized by Iowa results

Barack Obama was the only candidate to throw a party in Nevada to watch the Iowa caucus returns come in, and by the end of Thursday night it looked like a farsighted decision.

As more and more results confirmed a win for their candidate on the television screens above the bar in a Las Vegas Mexican restaurant, a packed-in crowd of Obama supporters cheered riotously.

"You're missing a great party, dude!" 34-year-old Brian Teed yelled into his cell phone. Teed, a precinct captain for the Illinois Democrat, said he was calling a fellow precinct captain.

Teed was happy, but not surprised: "I hate to say it, but I expected it," he said of the victory. "In the last couple of days, I could feel the excitement. I could feel the movement."

Yvette Williams, 49, has put her job on the back burner to volunteer for Obama's presidential campaign for nearly a year, since he first visited Nevada in February. The candidate later held a campaign event at her Las Vegas home.

"How do you put this into words? I'm ecstatic, excited about the future, energized to go out into Nevada," she said. The victory, she said, would give Obama's Nevada volunteers a shot in the arm.

"It's going to happen in Nevada," she said. "Oh yes it is. This is the omen."

Obama didn't just have the one caucus-watching party in Las Vegas. He had eight across the state; the others were in Boulder City, Carson City, Elko, Fallon, Pahrump, Reno and Winnemucca, fitting for a campaign that has blanketed the state with 11 headquarters, by far the most of any candidate.

Obama also had the most offices in Iowa. The campaign's spokeswoman in Nevada, Shannon Gilson, said that approach had been validated.

"Supporters are more likely to come in when you're in their communities," she said. "What we saw in Iowa is what we know to be true."

The Nevada caucuses, which follow a similar model to Iowa's, are in just 15 days. The Democratic campaigns that have built large organizations in Nevada all said the Iowa results gave them reason to keep going here.

The Nevada campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson planned to spend the evening making phone calls rather than partying. But they said they were not discouraged.

"The results in Iowa have absolutely no effect on our organization," said Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, Clinton's Nevada chairman. "We have already identified enough Hillary supporters to win the Nevada caucus. We just need to make sure they show up on January 19, and we have the organization to do it."

Reid said Iowa is too peculiar a state to be a good predictor of any candidate's popularity.

"When states that look like America begin to make their voices heard, she'll make her case that she's the candidate who's ready to run the country," he said.

Edwards' campaign spokesman in Nevada said the strong showing in Iowa left the former North Carolina senator "in good shape for Nevada."

"The dynamics are going to change now," Adam Bozzi said. "What happened in Iowa tonight -- the fact that we did better than Senator Clinton -- that's going to change what happens in New Hampshire, and what happens in New Hampshire is going to change Nevada."

Edwards, he said, would benefit from such a reshuffle because "he's the champion of middle-class values."

Across town from the Obama party, about 15 Republican activists gathered at a party thrown by the state GOP. Not a single supporter of Mike Huckabee could be found among them.

As Huckabee was declared the winner, they mostly scoffed.

"I like (Mitt) Romney, I like (John) McCain, I like (Rudy) Giuliani," said 67-year-old Barbara Altman. "We need a tough guy in the White House."

Huckabee, she said, would fizzle in the national arena.

"Iowa's not a good example of the country," she said. "Across the country, people are more sophisticated. They know what's going on in the world."

Another Republican, Norm Yeager, said he had switched his allegiance from Giuliani to Romney after being underwhelmed by a local Giuliani campaign appearance, then wowed by a Romney visit.

"Huckabee doesn't have staying power," he said. "I think Romney does."

Even as they were holding their breaths for the Iowa results, the campaigns in Nevada had no choice but to plunge ahead. With 15 days to go, there isn't a minute to waste.

Clinton's campaign is continuing to expand, announcing Thursday it is opening two more offices in the valley.

On Saturday, the campaign will open an office in southwest Las Vegas, at 8970 W. Tropicana Ave., Suite 6, and one in central Las Vegas, at 4343 N. Rancho Drive, Unit 222. That will bring her number of Nevada offices to six, four of them in Democrat-rich Clark County; the others are in Reno and Elko.

On hand to open the southwest office Saturday at noon will be New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a top national Clinton supporter. Nevada Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas Councilwoman Stephanie Smith will open the northern office at 12:30 p.m.

Clinton is set to be endorsed today by the newspaper El Mundo, an influential Spanish-language weekly whose publisher, Eddie Escobedo, had already personally endorsed her. Escobedo is a major Hispanic power broker and ubiquitous at Hispanic events.

Meanwhile, Obama's campaign is planning a Students for Barack Obama gathering Saturday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Obama recently received the support of several prominent Nevada activists, including Bob Fulkerson, director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, the state's pre-eminent network of liberal organizations.

Also supporting the Illinois senator are Richard Siegel, president of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno; Liz Foley, the former chairwoman of the Clark County Democratic Party; and Steve Fernlund, president of the Red Rock Democratic Club.

With Iowa, a year of campaigning finally came to a vote, but it was only the beginning. The New Hampshire primaries are just five days away, on Tuesday, and then comes Nevada, at least for the Democrats. (Republicans also have primaries in Michigan and South Carolina to pay attention to.)

That means there will be no resting on any laurels for campaigns in the Silver State.

"We've spent the whole year getting ready for this next few weeks," Edwards Nevada Chairman Tick Segerblom, a Las Vegas assemblyman, said earlier in the week. "Basically, we're right where we want to be going into that period. ... We couldn't be happier."

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