Bill Richardson's presidential campaign began in the Silver State-it could end there too.
Theresa Navarro is nervous.
She's hiding it well. If you learn anything from living in Nevada for 30 years it's a good poker face. But her hands betray her as she stands in the parking lot outside the Nevada Appeal newspaper in Carson City, restlessly thumbing her cell phone like a string of rosary beads.
Two months ago, Navarro-a Reno real estate agent-was extolling the virtues of granite counters and French doors while peddling two-bed, one-bath condos to newlyweds. Now she's singing the praises of renewable energy and international diplomacy in her efforts to sell a relatively unknown 59-year-old man to the American public.
And today Gov. Bill Richardson is running late. Navarro-the northern Nevada field organizer for Richardson's presidential campaign-has spent weeks preparing for his arrival: The phone calls have been made, security checks finished and itineraries set. All that's left is the waiting.
It's a clear, blustery Ash Wednesday morning in the sun-baked foothills of the snowcapped Sierra Nevadas. In an hour, Richardson will join seven other Democratic presidential contenders in the nation's first candidate forum of the 2008 election. In the meantime, he's scheduled to press the flesh at the Nevada Appeal, where a spillover crowd of approximately 400 people will watch a live television feed of catalog printing the forum being held down the street at the Carson City Community Center. But he has to show up first.
Navarro is flanked in the parking lot by eight more Richardson supporters, volunteers and employees. Like the rest, Navarro is a true believer.
"I have done some [regional] campaigns in the past that I may not have fully believed in, but I was doing them for the party," Navarro says. "This is different. The energy level is so much higher when you know you could actually help put somebody in the White House who you truly believe in."
A shiny black Dodge Durango pulls up to the curb. Mike Stratton, a veteran political consultant and senior campaign advisor, steps out of the driver's seat and walks around to open the passenger door. Richardson pauses in the passenger seat to straighten his tie, then steps out and begins shaking hands with his welcoming party. Moments later, the governor makes his way past a gaggle of photographers and strides through the front door of the building.
It's a small, but significant gesture. All the other assembled dignitaries-including US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and US Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio-enter through a side entrance. Entering through the front is one of the small steps a second-tier candidate like Richardson will take to get noticed.
The governor must shed his relative anonymity to move beyond his current status as the "best second-tier candidate" in the Democratic presidential primary race. But the tide of his political fortunes, as a real estate agent like Navarro might tell you, could shift on three simple words: Location, location, location.
Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, to be specific.
The state flag bears the slogan "Battle Born," but Nevada was only Adapter Cards Wholesale recently deemed an important presidential battleground. Last August, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) granted Nevada and South Carolina an early caucus and primary, respectively, in January 2008.
That privilege had traditionally been the sole province of Iowa a
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