In Pahrump, Paul is in friendly territory

PAHRUMP — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul took the lessons of his father to heart. And he ended up in Pahrump.

The son, a U.S. senator from Kentucky, isn't a carbon copy of his father. Even supporters view him as a savvier politician and less of an idealistic purist.

Still, Paul has plenty of support in Pahrump, where his message of curbing federal spending, limiting government and upholding the Bill of Rights resonates with residents.

If Paul, a long-shot candidate trailing other GOP contenders in the polls, does well anywhere in Nevada during the February caucuses, Pahrump almost surely will be on the list. Nye County Republicans supported the elder Paul in the 2012 Republican caucuses, even as GOP voters statewide favored Mitt Romney.

The region is a libertarian enclave. Zoning regulations aren't overly troublesome here. Privacy is treasured. People carrying firearms openly don't get hassled by law enforcement, provided they have permits. Residents might answer their door holding a gun if a stranger knocks.

Pahrump is almost certainly the only spot in the United States where a district attorney introducing Paul at a campaign stop mentions the frequent calls she has fielded from reporters asking about basketball stars and legal brothels. Former NBA star Lamar Odom was found unconscious earlier this month in a legal brothel in the county.

More important, Pahrump's inhabitants fondly remember Paul's father. And they are wary of Washington's ways creeping closer to their county and its 43,945 residents stretched across 18,182 square miles.

"I think Rand comes from good stock, and he's probably the best candidate in my eyes that's running," said Richard Bushart, 62, of Pahrump. "He's got grounding. What I really think is he takes his sworn oath seriously. He's there to uphold and protect the Constitution, and by God, he will."

It was against this backdrop that Paul's quest for the White House brought him to this isolated but friendly spot 63 miles west of Las Vegas on Tuesday. The day before, Paul was at the opening for his Las Vegas campaign office and told reporters he had a strategy for winning in Nevada. When asked for strategy specifics, he smiled and, like any other candidate would, didn't offer any clues.

The next morning, he went to Pahrump.

Stumping in Pahrump

Paul's campaign didn't offer any flash at the town's community center. The center had 128 folding chairs propped open. They soon filled up. A table offered bumper stickers and other campaign material.

Paul banners fastened on the concrete wall proclaimed a lofty goal: "Defeat the Washington Machine." But it's one that's welcomed in Nye County.

County Republican Party Chairman Bill Carns spoke to the audience about freedom and liberty, saying Paul is the candidate who understands about limited government.

"In 2012 we delivered his father, Ron Paul, from Nye County in the presidential preference poll. I fully expect that we'll do the same with the son Rand in 2016," he said.

Paul gave a freewheeling speech that didn't hold back. He casts himself as an anti-establishment candidate who believes the GOP's key to winning the White House is supporting the entire Bill of Rights, which means opposing the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance powers.

In Paul's view, it's not a Republican or Democratic problem. Both are at fault, he said.

He criticized Republicans for writing a "blank check" for military spending and Democrats for doing the same with domestic welfare.

"You know what's going on in Washington?" Paul said. "It's an unholy alliance."

Paul said the government has "spent a couple hundred thousand dollars studying whether or not Japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine."

The crowd laughed as Paul mocked the study.

"I think we could have polled the audience," he said.

Paul continued, criticizing the expenditure as an example of government spending run amok.

"And what does the establishment say? 'We can't stop it. We can't get any Democrats to stop it. It's all their fault,'" Paul said.

Paul's take: "Bullshit. Can you say, 'Bullshit,' Pahrump?"

Pahrump clapped and whistled in response.

"Washington is so completely out of touch, so completely not communicating with the rest of you that the only way that I think we'll ever fix it is term limits for all of them," he said.

Pahrump applauded long and loud.

People of Pahrump

The bedrock political belief of Paul's faithful disciples is this: The federal government has grown too big. It does things the founding fathers never intended.

The Pauls are apt to attract comparisons to the founding fathers. Bushart said: "I consider Ron to be like a modern day (Thomas) Jefferson. He's probably the closest to the framers that lives today."

Paul's supporters have ideas about what the federal government should scrap.

"If I was king for a day, I'd be the most hated guy in Washington," Bushart said. "It would be ugly. My first command would be to take the Department of Education and burn it. I think that's a matter for local control."

Kenny Bent, 62, a general engineering contractor, credits an encounter with the elder Paul in 2008 in Pahrump with jump-starting his interest in grass-roots politics.

"It was definitely his dad that engaged me politically," said Bent, who was a national delegate to the 2012 convention. "Before that, I thought there was no hope."

They say the son is more willing to work within the Republican framework and is less of an outsider than his father.

"He's not as good as his dad, but he's the best we got," said Terry Svejda, 51, of Pahrump, who sells film memorabilia. "There's just a little difference. Rand's playing more with the Republican Party. Ron would never play with the Republican Party whatsoever."

But they have the most faith in Rand Paul compared with other candidates.

"It comes down to he's totally about the Bill of Rights," said Pahrump resident Patrick Kerby, 57, a film producer who was a delegate to the 2012 Republican convention in Tampa, Fla.

Of course, there are no guarantees.

In an interview, Carns noted other GOP candidates have attracted attention, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Carns is undecided. Anything could happen, but a Paul win in the February GOP caucuses — in Nye County at least — wouldn't shock the locals.

"Rand Paul very well might be the leading candidate in Nye County," Carns said. "We haven't done any official polls."

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1