Think tank plans candidate forums

A Washington, D.C.-based think tank hopes to bring presidential candidates to both Northern and Southern Nevada in the coming months to talk about issues it wants to highlight in the upcoming election.

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, liberal-leaning public policy research group, will sponsor candidate forums in Las Vegas in November and in Reno in August, inviting the top Democratic and Republican candidates to participate.

Meanwhile, a Republican presidential candidate who has been doing well in Nevada polls despite never having publicly campaigned in the state is scheduled to visit in the coming weeks.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney plans to campaign in Elko on Aug. 13 and to make a two-city Nevada trip, to include Las Vegas, the following week, sources within his campaign said. No further details were available from the Romney campaign on Monday.

Of the two sets of Brookings forums, the Las Vegas event is planned for Nov. 16, Brookings spokeswoman Melissa Skolfield said.

It will come on the heels of a debate among the Democratic candidates scheduled for Nov. 15. That event is likely to be well-attended as it is scheduled to be broadcast on CNN and is one of only a few debates recognized by the Democratic National Committee.

The Brookings forum will consist of a discussion between a panel of experts, followed by individual presentations from the candidates. Only the top four candidates in national polling on each side will be invited. Brookings will partner with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for the event.

The topic has not been chosen, but it is likely to be national security and Iraq, Skolfield said.

The format will be the same for forums scheduled to be held at the University of Nevada, Reno. On Aug. 20, Republicans will be invited to make presentations after a panel discussion about energy; on Aug. 22, Democrats will be invited to speak after a panel on education.

The candidates will have about 20 minutes to speak individually. They will be asked to address the topic at hand but can also talk about other issues.

Democratic candidate Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, has agreed to attend. There have been "expressions of interest from several other candidates but no commitments yet," Skolfield said.

Skolfield said the forums will be held even if no other candidates agree to attend. "We'd still think it's valuable to explore an issue that's important to Nevada," she said.

The other invitees are Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, and Republicans Romney, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Ron Paul.

If Republican Fred Thompson formally enters the race, he probably would displace Paul, as polls show the actor and former Tennessee senator to have strong appeal among Republican voters, Skolfield said. But he has not yet decided to enter the race.

Like the November event, the August event seems well-timed for the Democratic candidates. It coincides with the state convention of the AFL-CIO, also scheduled to be held in Reno, at which some candidates are expected to appear, although none has yet announced plans to do so.

The forums also give Reno a presidential "cattle call" event. The city was robbed of such an opportunity when a Democratic debate scheduled for Aug. 14 was canceled after activists protested its sponsorship by Fox News.

The Nevada forums are part of a Brookings-backed effort, Opportunity 08, that seeks to emphasize substantive discussion of issues in the presidential campaign.

Similar events are being held in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, states that, like Nevada, hold the earliest presidential nominating contests.

Democrats and Republicans are slated to hold caucuses in Nevada on Jan. 19, giving the state new prominence early in the campaign.