Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Nevada Republicans are moving to arrange a caucus in early February 2008 in order to make the state more relevant in the presidential nominating process - and to prevent a similar Democratic Party move from tilting Nevada blue.

The Ely, Nevada, Times reports:

The national Democratic Party has scheduled a Jan. 19 presidential caucus in Nevada, the significance of which became clear last week, when nearly all of the Democratic candidates descended on Carson City for a first-in-the-nation candidates' forum that drew national attention.

"If the Democrats do this unabated, these Democratic campaigns are going to come in, spend money, put teams on the ground, and we run the risk of them building a comparable or even better (get-out-the-vote) operation," Reno-based Republican political consultant Pete Ernaut said Wednesday. "That could change the dynamic of this state from red to blue in a hurry. ... This is too close of a state to allow something like that to happen without a response."

Nevada;s Republican Party was scheduled to pick its presidential candidate on April 26, 2008, during regularly scheduled party precinct meetings, but by then the winner of the nomination is very likely to already be known.

Ernaut told the Las Vegas Sun that creating the Feb. 7 caucus "will make Nevada a very exciting battleground." The Sun reports:

The state has a nearly equal number of Democrats and Republicans. Bill Clinton won Nevada twice, as did George Bush, although by narrow margins. Republicans said they'd be crazy to let Democrats dominate the airwaves and gain early ground months before the general election. "We just can't let the party sit on its hands and not have any activity for a full year," Republican consultant Sig Rogich said.

Nevada Republicans also hope the early caucus will reinvigorate an ailing state party. The party's chairman, Paul Adams, recently resigned after a short and cash-strapped tenure. Under his watch, Democrats made slight gains in the state legislature and won four of six statewide offices.

Mike Hesse, chief of staff for Nevada Republican congressman Jon Porter, said moving the caucus provides the Nevada GOP "a good opportunity for the party to be building its grassroots strength for what we anticipate will be a tough race," and that holding a caucus "will require the party to become more organized."

I wonder what Chuck Muth thinks about all this. Last week he was lambasting the Nevada GOP for its public waffling on creating an early caucus.