From today's Beyond Chron.

When asking Nevada culinary workers on Tuesday to ignore their union's endorsement of Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton called his wife the insurgent in the race - and Obama the "establishment" candidate.  It was an odd statement, for nobody can seriously dispute that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party's establishment choice.  And while UNITE-HERE, the Culinary Workers and Nevada SEIU have rallied behind Obama, hotel and casino executives are largely supporting Clinton.

What the ex-President meant to say was that culinary workers should make up their own mind -- regardless of what their union recommends.  But the Nevada teachers' union (which supports Clinton) has ignored pleas from their own rank-and-file members to drop a lawsuit that, if successful, would prevent casino workers from voting in Saturday's caucus.  The party decided months ago to have "at-large" precincts inside Las Vegas casinos, but now some Clinton partisans - including Bubba - want them shut down because attendees are likely to support Obama.

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First Read has the story:

In what may be an attempt to offset today's expected Obama endorsement by the Nevada Culinary Workers Union, the Clinton campaign is touting a "major" Nevada endorsement -- that of Rep. Shelley Berkley.

Berkley, who represents congressional district with the state's largest city in it, Las Vegas, cited the New York senator's experience and record of "change" as reasons for her support -- a message on key with what the campaign has been projecting for months.

Because so few voters are expected to participate in next Saturday's caucuses -- as few as 40,000 by some estimations -- any momentum shift can be important. What's more, regardless of whether the endorsement of Berkley, the only Democrat to represent Nevada in the House, will "offset" the culinary workers' endorsement of Barack Obama, it will at the least allow reporters in the state to write of dueling endorsements, if not in the headline then certainly in the lede. This isn't earth-shattering stuff for Clinton, but it does come as good news as she seeks to sit on her seemingly comfortable lead in Nevada through the caucuses on the 19th.

Update [2008-1-9 13:31:57 by Jonathan Singer]: Via Breaking Blue, more over at My Silver State.

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The race between Republican Congressman Jon Porter and Democrat Tessa Hafen in NV-03 (the suburbs of Las Vegas) has been one of the closest in the country with 48.46% for Porter and 46.57% for Hafen and Porter winning by less than 4,000 votes. Therefore, it's not surprising that Democrats, both in DC and in Nevada, are looking for another serious challenger to Porter after Hafen, a former aide to Sen. Reid, declined to run again. Last week, another potential contender, 2006 gubernatorial nominee and State Sen. Min. Leader Dina Titus, took herself out of the running leaving the field with one announced candidate and two others seriously considering.

Thus far only Andrew Martin has announced his intention to run. He's an accountant making his first run for elected office and would be Nevada's first openly gay member of Congress. He's fairly unknown, though, and I'm not sure if he'd be able to raise the funds necessary for a successful run. Another potential candidate is Larry Lehrner, a nephrologist, a former Republican who does not even live in the district but is nontheless taken very seriously because he's married to Shelley Berkley, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley that is. A married couple representing two districts of one state in Congress, I don't think we've had that before and I'm not sure we'd want that.

So, maybe it's time for a waitress in Congress.

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A recent diary talked about possible primary targets in the House.  One simple method is to select those who meet three criteria:  the most conservative overall Democrat from their state's House delegation (44 possible), voted to continue funding for the war in Iraq (30 of the 44), and also come from districts either carried by John Kerry or effectively tied.  There are a total of six House members who meeet these criteria.  All of them, at leaast on paper, seem worthy of a primary challenge.  Let's look at the six.

At the top of my list is Rob Andrews.  Andrews is an embarrassment and a threat.  He comes from south Jersey, specifically the machine politics of NJ-1 (Camden County and surroundings).  Andrews comes from the most overwhelmingly Democratic district of any of the six (60.6% for Kerry).  He is the most conservative vote from the NJ Democrats in the House (a 78.34 score from Progressive Punch).  The heart of his district is Camden, the saddest city in New Jersey.  Back in the 1960's Camden had a population of over 100,000.  Today, it's 43,000 and dropping.  The city's literally bankrupt.  The State runs the schools.  And Rob Andrews?  He's the Harvad educated messenger boy for the Norcross machine.  The people deserve better.  The people need more.

The Norcross Machine is the bete noire of the state's biggest paper, the Newark Star Ledger.  It also is constantly fighting Democratic governors from a conservative view point.  George Norcross comes from a union management background.  But he carries water for the business interests.  It's not a nice picture.  And, to cap it off, unlike the Essex or Hudson machines, this one barely delivers at the polls.  Andrews has $2,074,365 cash on hand, one of the largest hordes of anybody in congress.  Every time an opening comes up for Governor or Senator in this state he is constantly mentioned as one of the front runners, solely because of his cash.  Just about the only loser the Democrats could nominate would be Andrews, who would be crucufied for his ties to the Norcross machine.  He needs to be ousted.  At the very least, a vigorous primary would cut that cash horde down to size.

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