Debate doesn’t change many impressions

The people filling the cavernous room at the Paris for Thursday’s Clark County Jefferson-Jackson dinner may have been more representative of Nevada Democrats than those who attended CNN’s televised debate at UNLV.

Hundreds of Democrats at the dinner filed in to an adjacent room to watch the debate. They could gravitate to small tables bedecked with individual candidates’ names.

During the debate, the vast majority of people in the room cheered the most for Sen. Hillary Clinton. And even those who worry about her chances in a national election seemed to view her nomination as inevitable.

Besides, if you’re not a Hillary Clinton supporter, it’s hard to have your voice heard in the room when many of the 200 tables were already filled by Clinton supporters.

Doris Balducci said she’s leaning toward Joe Biden because she’s not sure of the long-term potential for either Clinton or Barack Obama.

“I want to win,” she said. “And I want to have a leader who could pull in all those independent voters out there.”

One of the county’s temporary precinct chairs who has been instructed to stay neutral until she participates in the Jan. 19 caucus noted she had donated to four candidates, but “when we get to the state convention, I’ll throw in the towel and get behind Clinton.”

The inevitability reached a feverish pitch about 70 minutes into the debate when Clinton was asked whether she’s playing the gender card. “Here in Las Vegas, I’m playing the winning card,” she said to the loudest applause of the debate.

Her subsequent answer about judging everyone on their merits even had those wearing John Edwards T-shirts applauding.

All of the candidates who participated in CNN’s debate had support in the reception area, although Clinton and Edwards backers had staked out the most tables.

But even the folks milling around the tomato and basil bruschetta and cheese plate, had largely made up their minds.

Two women who said immigration and health care were their key issues said they hadn’t heard about Clinton’s 180-degree change on driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. One, the sister of a local immigration attorney who has endorsed Bill Richardson, said she was still supporting Clinton. “She can really do a good job with health care,” said Tina Prince. “It would be nice to have someone in office who really understands that issue.”

The Obama campaign, which supporters say has an incredible organizational game plan for the Nevada caucus, had a smaller physical presence within the reception room than did the campaigns for Biden, Richardson and Chris Dodd. Only Dennis Kucinich — with 20 or so people — had a smaller contingent.

About 50 yellow-shirted firefighters turned out for Dodd and are hoping they can once again bring a relatively obscure candidate from the field to front-runner status, as they did in 2004 with John Kerry.

“That was the lightning striking,” said Scott Johnson, a city of Las Vegas firefighter active in the local International Association of Firefighters. “I don’t know if lighting can strike twice.”

While he thinks Dodd is a tremendous candidate, Johnson isn’t sure Dodd can overcome low poll numbers and fund-raising difficulties.

Eventually, even the firefighters will gravitate to the top tier.

At one point in the debate, Biden finished his answer to a question about Pakistan by mentioning that he actually answered the question. Some at the reception laughed. Jana Wright, wearing a Clinton sticker, called him a smart ass. And even though she thinks America is ready for a Clinton presidency, she too, noted her candidate’s high negatives.

“Everybody loves to hate Hillary,” Wright said.

Some hate Hillary because of her baggage, some because of her almost impenetrable campaign, others because she’s still ahead in the polls.

At the end of the day, she’s still the front-runner, and even Democrats supporting other candidates didn’t see too much from her performance Thursday to cloud the aura of inevitability.

“I’ll come around eventually,” one Edwards supporter admitted. “Then I’ll pray.”

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.