Reids ­– Harry and Rory — take spotlight as Nevada Democrats gather for convention

Nevada's top father-son political team didn't share the stage on Saturday but judging from their speeches to the state's Democrats they share plenty of common enemies.

Sen. Harry Reid and his son, gubernatorial nominee Rory Reid, were the top draws for a relatively small but enthusiastic crowd at the Nevada State Democratic Convention at the Flamingo Las Vegas.

The top-of-the-ticket Democrats worked into their rhetoric shots at Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle, lame duck Gov. Jim Gibbons, U.S. Sen. John Ensign, Republican gubernatorial nominee Brian Sandoval and Republicans in general.

With Rory Reid leading off in the morning and Harry Reid as the grand finale, Democrats sought to rally their own to vote in what could be a rough year for the state's largest political party.

In between, Reps. Shelley Berkley, Dina Titus and state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford filled the time with feisty speeches of their own, urging the audience of die-hard Democrats to press friends, neighbors and co-workers who might vote for Democratic candidates to get to the polls Nov. 2.

"We need to come together as a well-oiled Democratic machine," Rory Reid told the audience of about 500 people. "If we show up, we will win. It is that simple."

The challenge facing Democrats is to turn out the same Nevada voters who supported President Barack Obama in 2008 without the luxury of Obama's charismatic campaign presence and trying to appeal to an electorate that is grumbling over everything from the dour housing market to Nevada's nation-leading unemployment rate.

In 2008 Nevada was the epicenter of enthusiastic Democratic turnout as Obama's supporters registered tens of thousands of new voters and Obama and Hillary Clinton battled neck-and-neck around the state seeking to win the state's early caucus voting.

"It is never going to be possible to reach 2008, probably in our lifetimes," said Democratic consultant Jim Ferrence, whose clients include Secretary of State Ross Miller and lieutenant governor candidate Jessica Sferrazza. "But really the machines both of the Reid campaigns are putting together to drive out the base is going to be a big advantage."

Republicans are seeking to turn the Reid family's political power and Democratic dominance against them, knowing both men have low favorable and high unfavorable ratings with state voters.

It is a strategy they hope will help them overcome the Democrats' registration advantage, which stands at about 60,000 voters statewide.

"The Democrats are supposed to be the diversity party. We have a woman and a Hispanic at the top of the ticket. (They) have two guys from under the same roof on the other side," said Mark Amodei, chairman of the state Republican Party. "Does the state of Nevada really exist to provide an elected public office job for Harry and his oldest son?"

Democrats are aware voters may be wary of electing two people from the same family to top offices in the same election.

Rory Reid's campaign material rarely mentions his last name and it was nowhere to be seen or heard during his first statewide television ad.

Dan Hart, a Democratic consultant and longtime adviser to Rory Reid, a three-term member of the Clark County Commission, says the family issue has caused some tension among Democrats early but by Election Day won't matter.

"It is causing some consternation between the candidates," Hart said. "But I think the choices will be so stark ... that who is somebody's dad or son is not going to matter as much as it does right now."

Berkley, who has perhaps the safest seat in the Nevada congressional delegation, used part of her speech to boost Rory Reid and referenced his campaign decision to downplay his family ties.

"Whether you call him Rory or Rory Reid it is all the same to me. I don't need a last name to know how remarkable that man is," she said.

Afterward Harry Reid addressed his son's decision to campaign under his first name.

"He is my son, I care a great deal about him," he said. "He will be a great governor but he has to run his own campaign."

Although Rory Reid is downplaying his family name so far, he showed his dad's fighting spirit on stage in the morning, when he was the first politician to address the audience.

He spent more than half of his speech on the attack, laying into Sandoval for a slew of perceived offenses on everything from an alleged lack of policy positions to snappy sartorial selections.

Mostly Reid, who trails Sandoval by about 20 percentage points in statewide opinion polls, sought to tie his opponent to Angle, perceived by Democrats to be too far to the right for most voters, and Gibbons, who earlier this month became the first governor in state history to lose re-election in his own party's primary.

After a dig at the failed Senate campaign of Republican Sue Lowden, whose candidacy fell apart following a gaffe stemming from her suggestions people could barter chickens for health care, Reid turned the avian rhetoric on Angle and Sandoval.

"Now we're left to face a loon named Sharron Angle and a parrot they call Brian Sandoval," he said. "During the primary season (Sandoval) spent the entire time parroting everything Jim Gibbons said."

He added: "Brian Sandoval is Jim Gibbons in a more expensive suit."

While Rory Reid focused largely on his opponent and was on stage less than 10 minutes, his father spoke for nearly 25 minutes and mingled cheerily with the audience and reporters for about another 15.

The elder Reid spent most of his speech and subsequent statements talking about his work in Congress as Senate majority leader, highlighting how he sought to use his influence to improve Nevada's lousy economy through tax breaks and government incentives for people to buy cars and houses and for companies to invest in renewable energy development.

He spoke fondly of an electricity transmission line between rural White Pine County and urbanized Clark County, which he says will be the key to creating renewable energy jobs by developing untapped solar, wind and geothermal sources in the state.

"We can bring it toward hungry Las Vegas. And when we still have more we are producing we can sell it to hungry California," he said. "That is what it is all about."

Reid touted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the so-called stimulus law, for pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the global economy when it was at the brink of collapse and saving thousands of jobs in Nevada.

He also renewed a promise to deliver a major financial reform bills he said would rein in Wall Street banks by making the system more transparent and reducing the risk to taxpayers.

He likened the effort to his former job as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.

"The one thing we worked hard to do was to make sure the games of chance we had in Nevada were fair," Reid said. "If someone lost their money, they lost it fair and square. If they won, they won by playing a fair game."

Lest the audience think the former boxer was losing his desire to punch an opponent, Reid made sure to get in plenty of swings during his speech.

He blamed "greedy Wall Street" for the housing crash and subsequent un­employment crisis in Nevada and former President George W. Bush for many of the financial problems and debt burdening the federal government.

"We can't talk about the hole we're in unless we talk about what George Bush did," Reid said.

Contact Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.