Nevada Savors Its Place as Maker of Momentum

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Nevada Savors Its Place as Maker of Momentum
Isaac Brekken for The New York Times

An Obama endorsement on Wednesday by the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas elicited cheers from members.

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: January 10, 2008


LAS VEGAS — Scores of college students fanned out in neighborhoods across this city Wednesday, phone banks buzzed with newly minted volunteers and endorsements were proffered as the Democratic presidential candidates ratcheted up the volume in this once-quiet caucus state.

Next in line on the Democratic calendar, Nevada was vaulted overnight into the position of breaking a tie, at least for now, after the victory of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. The campaigns of Mrs. Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, who won the Iowa caucuses last week, seemed poised for a sanguinary struggle in the Jan. 19 caucuses, and Mr. Obama was scheduled to arrive here on Friday.

The Clinton and Obama camps rushed in volunteers and staff members from Iowa, furiously opened new field offices and saturated the airwaves with radio advertisements in Spanish and television spots promoting their health care plans.

For Mrs. Clinton, efforts on her behalf in Nevada intensified last week after her third-place finish in Iowa. Campaign staff members here impressed upon volunteers that they were direly needed. With her victory in New Hampshire, Mrs. Clinton, who long ago collected the institutional support of her party here — and until recently enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls — is now seeking to build on her newfound momentum.

“We always knew Nevada would be important as the first Western state,” said Hilarie Grey, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton here. “We can be the state that swings the momentum in an entirely different way.”

Mr. Obama won an endorsement Wednesday morning from the highly influential Culinary Workers Union local at a raucous news conference here in Las Vegas, where more than 100 members began chanting and yelling at what quickly became an Obama rally.

After praising the other Democrats for fighting for “the Las Vegas dream,” D. Taylor, the secretary and treasurer of the union and its public face, gave the nod to Mr. Obama.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/us/politics/10nevada.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin