LAS VEGAS - Democrats are eager to recreate the energy and excitement that helped President Barack Obama carry Nevada in 2008 and go on to win the White House.
But there is no competitive primary this time around to ignite the rank-and-file, and the state's prolonged economic woes are among the many challenges Obama supporters face heading into the general election in a key battleground state where Democrats barely outnumber Republican voters.
With the nation focused on today's South Carolina Republican primary, Nevada Democrats are holding caucuses at high schools, middle schools, community centers, libraries and houses of worship across the state this morning to demonstrate Obama's enduring support among his most faithful followers.
Democrats said the mostly symbolic caucuses - only Obama's name will appear on the ballot, and the results are non-binding - will also help them organize volunteers who will eventually try to persuade their neighbors to give Obama a second term.
"We won't need to choose a nominee for our party, but we do need to use this tremendous opportunity to grow this campaign in our community," Luke Hayes, Obama's Nevada director, told voters this week while promoting the caucuses.
To blunt the buzz the Nevada GOP is expecting from its Feb. 4 caucuses, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are scheduled to rally Democrats today at the largest caucus, planned at Cheyenne High School in North Las Vegas.
Solis, Reid and other surrogates stationed at caucus locations across the state will be tasked with talking up Obama and instructing caucus-goers how to do the same. The idea is that caucus-goers will then use that message to try to convince the party's less faithful and independents that Obama remains the best candidate to fulfill promises made four years ago.
Reid, the de facto leader of Nevada's Democrats, touted the passage of the federal health care law and efforts to police Wall Street investors in a letter sent out this week urging voters to attend the caucuses.
"All of that because folks just like you showed up in 2008," he wrote. "So I want to urge you to show up this Saturday and help ensure another four years of big accomplishments for our country."
It's unclear how many Democrats will cast votes today. There will be 118 caucus locations.
Turnout is expected to be light compared with the record 116,000 caucus-goers who debated between Obama and then-rival Hillary Clinton in 2008. That year, the caucuses benefited from the candidates' political celebrity after they spent weeks crisscrossing the state to drum up votes.
This time around, Obama has not visited Nevada since October. Vice President Joe Biden was in Reno on Thursday to drum up interest in Saturday's election. Obama is also scheduled to visit Las Vegas next week.
The caucuses will convene at 11 a.m. and voting runs until 1 p.m. Democrats are also expected to elect delegates during the caucuses. Nevada will have 44 delegates at the Democratic National Convention in September in Charlotte, N.C.
