If Biden runs, he’ll have support in the Silver State

For political consultant Ronni Council, the moment came in the White House, when a booming voice called her name from down the hall.

Council was waiting with her friend, Harriet Trudell, to meet Vice President Joe Biden, the owner of that voice that echoed off the walls as if to embrace his two guests before the man himself could physically reach the West Wing office where they were waiting.

Plenty of people have such Biden Moments, memories of a phone call, a photo or a private chat in which the vice president's cobalt blue eyes fixate on yours, making you feel like you're the only person who matters.

"He listens. He listens to what people have to say, and what they need," said Council. "Everyone he meets absolutely adores him."

Well, maybe not everyone. But even some political adversaries have been won over by that earnest voice and the megawatt smile, the attitude that's never too far removed from the kid who was born in Scranton, Penn., and who later took the Amtrak to work in the Senate for decades.

Council knows Biden well, having worked for his 2008 campaign for president, which crashed and burned in the cornfields of Iowa. But now she's ready to work for him again as the Nevada state director for Draft Biden, a super PAC urging the vice president to get into the 2016 presidential race.

"If he decides to run, we need to make sure he has the opportunity to do that," Council said. "The whole idea is to make sure he has that organization in place if he makes the decision to run."

Draft Biden already has a Nevada Latino outreach coordinator, Jocelyn Sida, and Council will be adding Northern and Southern coordinators, too. There will be more staff than Biden had back in 2007 at this point in the campaign. "There's still a lot of time — it's six months before the caucuses," Council said.

And that's the million-dollar question in Democratic politics now: Will Biden run or won't he? Still suffering in the aftermath of the death of his eldest son, Beau, in May, Biden has said lately he's simply not sure if he has the emotional fuel for a grueling campaign. But the vice president, at age 72, must know this will be his final opportunity to become commander in chief.

Biden boasts a resume like no one else in the Democratic field: Foreign policy chops from his decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, relationships vital to creating the compromises that keep government functioning, and executive experience as President Barack Obama's No. 2.

"Joe Biden tells people the truth," Council said, invoking the recent rise of blunt-talking businessman Donald Trump. "The difference [between Biden and Trump] is, Joe Biden gets along with others."

In a field where the left has Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, and where the establishment has former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Biden can carve out an appeal to the working-class, blue-collar Democrats as well as the progressives who recognize Biden wears his heart on his sleeve.

"People trust him. There's an honesty about him," Council said.

Still, she hesitated for a few minutes before agreeing to take on the job, in addition to her duties at her consulting shop, Organized Karma. I asked her about her support for Biden even as the country may be on the cusp of electing its first female president ever.

"I do hope to see a woman in that office someday," Council said. "But I do think that Joe Biden would be a great president."

If he decides to try, he'll have a passionate helper in Nevada, at least.

—Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5275 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.