The answer could depend on people like Lori O'Neil. The 52-year-old single mother earns minimum wage overseeing housekeeping at Elko's Motel 6. She skipped the last two presidential elections but has registered this time to vote for Obama. The economy -- "tough times . . . rough for everybody," she said -- was a big reason.
"Food. Gas. Everything goes up, and it just gets harder and harder every day," O'Neil said, leaning over a wooden barricade at an Obama rally this month in Elko. The Democrat, she said, "seems to be for us poor people out there."
To ensure that O'Neil and others like her make it to the polls, the Obama campaign has built perhaps the largest turnout operation in Nevada history. In the past, Democrats tended to rely on organized labor to handle their grass-roots and get-out-the-vote efforts. That worked well in Las Vegas and Clark County, where building trades and the Culinary Union, representing tens of thousands of casino workers, enjoy considerable clout.
But Republicans often made up the difference by winning handily in Washoe County, which includes Reno, and swamping the Democrats in Nevada's 15 other counties, known collectively as "the rurals." Bush carried some of those counties by 3 to 1 or better in 2000 and 2004.
This time, the Obama campaign is counting on labor to supplement its organizing efforts. The campaign has opened 14 state offices, hired about 100 paid staffers and recruited more than 3,500 volunteers, many trained in neighbor-to-neighbor outreach.
The McCain campaign has opened nine offices. It will not discuss staff levels. "At the end of the day, we'll be fully staffed with everything we need in place," said McCain spokesman Rick Gorka, who reported a surge in volunteers after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined the Republican ticket.
Democrats started with a big organizational edge as a result of the presidential caucuses in January, which were a major event in the party's nominating fight. The campaign was ugly -- there were attack ads and court fights -- and the result was a split decision, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York winning the most votes and Obama claiming the most delegates. But the caucuses produced a huge turnout by Nevada standards -- 116,000 compared with 8,500 four years ago -- and created a strong foundation for November.
