"You know these folks -- they hate to miss an opportunity to raise money," said Brian Greenspun, who oversees his family's publishing, real estate and casino holdings and helped organize Clinton's bash. He's a college friend of her husband. "Nevada and Las Vegas are in the fundraising bull's-eye."
The chairman of gambling giant MGM Mirage, Terrence Lanni, is a co-chairman of McCain's national fundraising team. Though McCain doesn't accept campaign money from tribal casinos -- because of his role on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee -- two top campaign aides work as consultants to Indian casinos. And Lanni's company is a partner in a big Indian hotel-casino project in Connecticut.
Republican Romney is Mormon, and his church opposes gambling, though Mormon money helped build modern Las Vegas. Most of Romney's $400,000 in Nevada came from developers, business owners and church members. Only one check came from a donor who identified himself as a casino company employee.
Romney noted that as governor, he blocked an Indian tribe from opening Massachusetts' first casino, in part "because of the concern about the additional social costs." But he counts casino magnate Steve Wynn among his supporters. "I would expect that I'm going to get support from industry members ... although I don't really have a position on gaming that affects a presidential run," Romney said in a recent interview.
Nevada's biggest player to date is Giuliani, also a Republican. In the first 90 days of the year, he raised $526,000 in the state, more than any other candidate. Casino interests accounted for at least $205,000 of the total, including $100,000 from owners, executives and family members of Station Casinos.
Clinton's $319,000 Nevada haul was the most among Democrats, and included $118,000 from gambling sources. Her main Democratic rivals, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, each raised less than $65,000 in Nevada in the first quarter.
By California or New York standards, Nevada remains a modest source of money. Donors with Nevada addresses gave just $1.5 million of the $112 million raised by major candidates in the first three months of the year. Nevada's donations in the initial months of the campaign placed it 22nd among the states; Nevada's population ranks 35th.
For the commercial casinos, the tribal gambling houses and key labor unions, their interests in who becomes president are clear, if often conflicting.
