Republican opens Nevada office

It's finally happening: A Republican presidential campaign has taken notice of the tight race for Nevada's early caucuses and shelled out for staff, an office and advertising here.

And the candidate is (drumroll please) Ron Paul.

Paul stunned the chattering classes with his national third-quarter fundraising of more than $5 million, leaving him with more cash on hand than John McCain. The Texas congressman is now devoting a substantial chunk of that cash to Nevada.

A campaign spokesman said three staffers -- a communications coordinator and two field directors -- have set up shop here and four more organizers are on their way. They are about to sign a lease on office space in Las Vegas.

For two weeks ending last Friday, Paul's campaign ran a radio ad in the Las Vegas market that begins, "Who is Ron Paul?" It touts his experience as a physician and fiscally conservative philosophy.

Paul stands to have the largest staff of any Republican candidate in Nevada. He is the first Republican to run local ads and to open a Nevada office.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has four full-time staffers and two consultants in the state and is said to be poised to open an office.

"Nevada is a key early primary state," Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton said. "It's on everybody's radar. We think Dr. Paul's message of freedom plays extremely well in Nevada, and the nature of the caucuses means we can get our motivated people there and do well."

With every poll of Nevada Republicans showing a different candidate in the lead and a large percentage undecided, the state party has been trying to get the message out that Nevada is up for grabs. But only Romney and now Paul seem to be listening.

C'MON, NEW HAMPSHIRE!

With Iowa Democrats joining their Republican counterparts in picking Jan. 3 for their presidential caucuses last week, Nevada Democrats believe they are sitting pretty.

"We think that the presidential calendar is shaping up to favor Nevada and ensure that we have the eyes of the nation on our state on Jan. 19," Nevada Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Kirsten Searer said.

The calendar, which had been in chaos for months, now appears to be in place with one exception. The storied New Hampshire primary, which rests in the hands of its secretary of state, is not yet scheduled.

On Friday, Nevada's Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, together with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., urged New Hampshire to get right. New Hampshire, they wrote in the Politico, "has approached setting its primary date as if it were as inconsequential as the date of a high school class reunion and not an important part of the nominating process for the next president of the United States."

The New Hampshire tea leaves are famously impossible to read, but Secretary of State Bill Gardner has said he will schedule the primary no later than Jan. 8. That means at least 11 days when the Democratic candidates will have nothing better to do than campaign in Nevada.

Republicans, on the other hand, may be splitting their time between Michigan, where Democrats have promised not to campaign for the Jan. 15 primary, and South Carolina, where the Republican primary is on Jan. 19 and the Democratic primary is not until Jan. 26.

For Democrats here, the current situation appears even better than the original plan, which would have had Iowa on Jan. 14 and New Hampshire on Jan. 22. Nevada could be especially important if Iowa and New Hampshire go for different candidates.

"If you look at the polls right now, it's very likely Iowa and New Hampshire could split and Nevada could be a tiebreaker," Searer said.

YUCCA JUNKETS

Like water finding its way downhill, special interests are, perhaps inevitably, looking for ways to work around new ethics rules for members of Congress.

For instance, the Nuclear Energy Institute is trying to figure out how it might be able to continue sponsoring lawmaker and staff trips to Yucca Mountain when the rules now generally limit lobbyist-sponsored "fact-finding" trips to a single day.

The trade group for the nuclear power industry is developing a legal opinion that it may be permissible, for instance, to fly a group to Las Vegas on Monday, tour the proposed nuclear waste site on Tuesday, and fly back to Washington on Wednesday. After all, the Yucca segment is just one day.

Staffers for the nuclear industry group confirmed the legal opinion, which first was reported last week by Washington Post columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum. The opinion is being discussed with ethics lawyers in Congress, Birnbaum reported.

"We are looking to find out what is permissible," said an NEI associate. "We absolutely are committed to complying with the requirements."

It has been more than two years since NEI sponsored a Yucca Mountain tour, Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said. The group said no tours are in the works at this time.

RIGHT ON MCCUE

Sen. Harry Reid is bringing back one of his most trusted advisers as Senate Democrats try to sharpen their messages and the Nevadan begins to look toward a 2010 re-election campaign.

Susan McCue, Reid's top strategist as his chief of staff from 1999 until last November, announced Wednesday she is leaving her post as president of the ONE campaign, a star-studded global anti-poverty group.

McCue is setting herself up as a consultant, and said her main client will be the ONE campaign. Her work for Reid will likewise be part-time, but could prove to be the higher profile gig.

To start, she plans to share an office in suburban Alexandria, Va., with noted Democratic strategist James Carville.

"I want to help build on the accomplishments that Democrats have achieved in the year since I left, and to help position Democrats for the 2008 cycle," McCue said Friday.

McCue confirmed that planning has begun for Reid's re-election bid in 2010.

Reid has met over the past month or so with a team including McCue; current chief of staff Gary Myrick; pollster Mark Mellman; advertising specialist Jim Margolis; communications aide Penny Lee; and Jimmy Ryan, another Reid staff alum who now works as a Citigroup lobbyist. The Politico reported the meetings last week.

McCue's return was cheered by liberal bloggers, who said she could serve as an effective intermediary between Democrats and activists chafing over the party's struggles to bring about a change in the Iraq war.

McCue, who got her start as a Reid communications aide in the early 1990s, established the Democrats' "war room" in 2004. She believed the caucus needed to become more aggressive in pushing its messages and responding to critics.

Even after leaving Reid's employ, McCue was never more than a phone call away. She said discussions about a renewed relationship started "a couple of months ago."

"He and I never stopped having conversations, and we both agreed this would be a good opportunity," she said.

McCue is expected to spend time in Nevada as Reid lays groundwork for a re-election campaign.

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