MARK WAITE / PVT Former U.S. Senate candidate Jack Carter speaks at the first Nye County Democratic Party awards dinner Saturday night. MARK WAITE / PVT Democrats convened, had dinner and saw themselves as increasingly important as the 2008 general election approaches. Advertisement

Nye County Democratic Party Chairman Loyal Watkins remembered how, back in 2000, his first meeting of county Democrats attracted only six people.

Last Saturday night, nearly 100 party supporters paid $100 per plate to attend the first Nye County Democratic Party Central Committee recognition dinner at the Pahrump Nugget banquet room.

County Democrats handed out awards to David Bennett, Randy Soltero and Val Von Holt for their support.

Nevada Democratic Party Chairwoman Jill Derby said Democrats became energized after their defeat in the November 2004 presidential election, which she called "one of the worst nights of my life."

Nevada has attracted the attention of 2008 Democratic presidential candidates this year, with the moving up of the state caucus to Jan. 19.

Already front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D.-N.Y., Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson have visited Pahrump.

"How these early states turn out really can decide an election," Derby said. "Nevada is going to play an influential role ... It's really important we do well, we're the new kid on the block."

Derby said Democrats will be better organized after the Jan. 19 caucus than ever before.

"We're organizing down to the precinct level. This is going to turn Nevada blue," she said.

At the Nevada Legislature, Democrats are only one Senate seat away from claiming a majority in both houses, Derby said. That will be important after the 2010 census, she said.

"When redistricting happens in 2010, we'll be the ones drawing the lines, and that means a very big difference," Derby said.

While the Republicans claim to have captured the issue of family values, Derby said Democrats should be touting their own values, which include opportunity for all, a level playing field, rewards for hard work, a respect for civil liberties and tolerance for others.

"We're the party of values that really count," Derby said.

Jack Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, made his first Pahrump appearance since he lost the U.S. Senate race to incumbent John Ensign last November. He said, it's been a pleasure to watch the Republican Party self-destruct.

Carter recalled how the caucus system began after the raucous Chicago Democratic Party Convention in 1968, when there was talk about changing the system so it involved more than the same old party regulars picking the candidates every four years.

While other candidates were sitting on their hands, the eventual party nominee, George McGovern, was collecting delegates through the caucus system in 1972, Carter said.

The Carter campaign strategy in 1976 was to spend money organizing in Iowa and New Hampshire, skipping other states like Massachusetts. The campaign did focus on Florida, where it wanted to beat a fellow southerner, right-winger George Wallace, he said.

"Even though you didn't have a lot of money, you could come into town, rent a car and stay in people's houses," Carter said of the caucus system. "It's understanding the power of a small state, where you could spend time there without spending a lot of money there, that won us the election," he said.

When it came to Iowa farmers, Carter, who ran a grain elevator, said, "They can tell talking to somebody for five minutes whether they're worth a damn or not." Iowa's early primary has long been seen as a significant step in the process.

Guest speaker Vincent Pancini, political director of the Sheet Metal Workers of America, said union organizers learned long before Howard Dean's 50-state strategy that to win in Nevada and nationwide, they can't ignore rural America.

The U.S. Senate race turned on a Democratic upset in Montana, while three other GOP incumbents lost safe seats in the intermountain west last November, Pancini said. He predicted the West will decide the balance of power in November 2008.

"All across the nation, American families are being foreclosed on and thrown out of their homes while their wages cannot hope to keep up with the rise in the cost of housing," Pancini said. "The American people know who is at fault. They see an administration that has been nothing but a roadblock to progress for millions of hard working Americans."