Can John McCain Win in Nevada?
In terms of Nevada issues, McCain unsuccessfully tried to ban college sports betting in Nevada, an unpopular move in a state where gambling is an economic engine, writes Dave Toplikar of the Las Vegas Sun. McCain's love of Indian casinos was highlighted this weekend in the New York Times.
He also pushed for creating a federal boxing commission and once called what many see as that sport's successor, Ultimate Fighting, "human cockfighting." And he told a Sun reporter that he supports creating a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The polls in Nevada show a dead even race even though McCain is a Southwestern Senator.
Wall Street's distress poses an existential (this election's favourite buzzword) threat to Mr. McCain's campaign, writes John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail. Six of seven national opinion polls, all conducted last week, put Mr. Obama at least five percentage points ahead of Mr. McCain. And with the economy hurting in Nevada, these issues resonate throughout the state.
In Nevada two thirds of the total statewide vote is cast in Clark County, which includes the city of Las Vegas. It is the only county in the entire state that John Kerry won in 2004.
Since 2004 Democratic voter registrations in Clark County are up by 63,000 while GOP registrations have grown by 38,000. Many of the new voters are Latinos. County statistics show that 70 percent of the voters who register using Spanish-language forms register as Democrats and only 18 percent register as Republicans.
To show just how even the race is, online political prediction market betting at BetUS.com has both the Democrats and Republicans listed with -120 odds in the state of Nevada to win the White House this November.
----
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
