In Nevada, it's experience over charisma
HENDERSON, Nev.
HILLARY CLINTON'S victory in Saturday's Nevada Democratic caucuses may very well have been in the hands of four teachers listening to her final rally 13 hours before the caucuses. Despite the roars of a packed junior high gymnasium, all four, teachers here or at an elementary school across the street, remained undecided.
"Do we want experience or charisma?" said Andy Strano, 28.
"All the candidates say a lot of flowery things about education, but too often it's just talk."
"It's hard because she says good things, but she was part of the old team," said Christine Moen, 31.
Rhonda Shonkwiler, 48, complained how little Nevada spends on public education. "None of the candidates really talk about that," she said.
"I just don't know how she will get her education proposals through," said Karina Nevers, 25.
When the moment of truth came, Shonkwiler, Nevers, and Strano, ended up caucusing for Clinton. Moen caucused for John Edwards.
"I decided she had the strength and experience," Shonkwiler said. "I really like Obama and I want change. But what do you do to make that happen? How do you go about it? I was convinced she could do the job from day one."
Strano said he went to his precinct caucusing for Edwards. But Edwards did not reach the 15 percent threshold of support to be viable. Strano said that of the six people who were for Edwards, four went to Clinton. Two went for Barack Obama.
"I went for experience in the end," Strano said.
Nevers said she also went to her caucus to support Edwards. The same thing happened. Edwards did not have enough support. Of the 10 people who were for Edwards, Nevers said seven went to Clinton.
"I don't know if it was true at all the caucus sites, but the Clinton people really went all out at mine," Nevers said. "They brought food and snacks, they were giving out stickers, they were very loud trying to get us to come to their side. It was quite a scene."
Those switches helped Clinton defeat Obama 51 percent to 45 percent in the popular vote. They helped offset Obama's crossover appeal to independents and Democrats in rural parts of northern Nevada.
An example of Obama's strong showing was the three generations of a family who came to hear him at Elko High School. In the last two days before the caucuses here, Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards all visited this small mining town of 17,000 people in a scorched tarmac campaign, pursuing every Democrat under a desert rock.
The patriarch, 92-year-old Mike Jones, said he cast his first vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He said he was for Hillary Clinton. "Everything being equal, I'm voting for a woman," he said. "It is time we had a woman president for a change."
When he said that, he was hugged by his granddaughter, 23-year-old Tiffany, a student at the University of Nevada-Reno. But she was caucusing for Obama. "Until now I lacked hope in our candidates," Tiffany said. "This is the first time I've been inspired by a candidate to get off my butt."
Tiffany's father, Duane, 57, is the owner of an outdoor clothing store. He was also a precinct chairman here for the caucuses. He and his 57-year-old wife Delynn, a controller for the Elko convention center and visitor's authority, went to hear all three candidates.
"You could push me over with a feather for any of the three," Duane said. "I'm probably leaning toward Barack. I was tipped by his Iowa victory speech. I was really taken. It was so refreshing."
Delynn said she had been leaning toward Edwards. But she switched to Obama. "I've heard all three speakers," Delynn said. "His experience is not a problem with me. He sounded to me like he has the most potential to be able to get sides to negotiate on our problems."
According to current polls, Obama stands a chance to regain some momentum Saturday in the South Carolina primary, with a large percentage of African-American voters. But on the looming Super Tuesday stage, it is beginning to appear that Clinton's recovery in New Hampshire with women, particularly older women, is solidifying.
The resolve of Clinton voters was summed up in Henderson by 70-year-old Rose Marie Kokosky. As the crowd chanted, Kokosky, who retired to the area after 30 years as a secretary for
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.
