Stirring up the partisans in North Las Vegas

A candidate for North Las Vegas mayor is trying to trade on the popularity of President Barack Obama in the heavily Democratic city. A mailer from Councilwoman Stephanie Smith features a snapshot of Obama with a local volunteer at an event in Las Vegas.

"I organized for Democrat Barack Obama, now I support Stephanie Smith for my mayor," says a quotation from the volunteer, Kenya Pierce, printed next to the photograph.

The flier hammers home the fact that Smith is "the only woman who is a Democrat in the North Las Vegas mayoral campaign." It also features photos of locals who now support Smith posing with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, and highlights "her opponent, Republican Shari Buck," who it says would "bring the disastrous policies of George W. Bush to our city."

Smith doesn't mention in the flier that before she got behind Obama, she endorsed Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries. She also doesn't mention that there's another Democratic city council member on the ballot, William Robinson.

Municipal elections are technically nonpartisan, meaning no party affiliation is listed next to candidates on the ballot. That means if candidates want to get votes based on party identification, they have to communicate that information to voters themselves. Sometimes it's to their advantage to do that, as in the case of Smith — there are about 374,000 Democrats registered in North Las Vegas and 255,000 Republicans. Sometimes candidates would rather not bring it up, as in the case of outgoing Mayor Mike Montandon, a Republican.