LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Republican Party hasn't had a very good run of luck lately.
In January, state Chairman Paul Adams was ousted after taking sides in a nasty congressional primary fight that ended up in court. He was replaced temporarily by Vice Chairman Paul Willis, who in turn was savaged by bloggers and party activists over his close ties to a Pahrump, Nev., brothel owner facing federal wire-fraud charges.
Then news reports surfaced that newly elected Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons -- who removed Adams -- is under federal investigation over gifts he received during his five terms in Congress.
Meanwhile, the state's Democrats came up with the idea of pushing their traditionally late and irrelevant presidential caucus to Jan. 19, 2008 -- second only to Iowa, and forcing the Republicans into a political version of keeping up with the Joneses or risk letting the Democrats bask alone in the national spotlight.
"We were green with envy that the Democrats had thought of it first," said Sue Lowden, a casino co-owner and former state senator and Las Vegas TV news anchor who was elected last month as the new state Republican chairwoman. "For us to sit back and watch the Democrats do it and not get involved, we were really losing ground. I mean we felt it. And we had to fight back."
The turmoil in the party follows several years of political success, and it is Lowden's job to try to reclaim some of those glory days.
Getting the Republican house in order in time for the caucuses could be crucial in determining whether Nevada becomes a major player in the 2008 Republican nomination battle or a political punch line -- and whether Republicans can keep the Democrats at bay in a state that has sided with the winner in every presidential election but one since 1912.
"It does increase the pressure," Lowden said. "We know that the whole country will be watching. But that's why we're doing it -- we want to be noticed."
But not necessarily for the sorts of things that make Nevada stand out. The lifeblood for the state's economy is gambling-based tourism, and prostitution is legal in 11 counties -- neither of which sits well with the social conservatives who dominate Republican politics nationally.
Yet the more libertarianoriented Republicans in the desert and mountain areas -- locally known as "the rurals" -- dominate the party here, and presidential contenders will likely find that winning Nevada takes a different message than what they might push in South Carolina.
