The Nevada Democratic Caucuses, scheduled for Saturday, February 20, are looming as a key test of whether Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) can maintain the momentum of his insurgent campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Sanders is riding a wave of excitement coming off a resounding 22-point thrashing of Clinton in the New Hampshire Primary. Clinton’s backers point to her thin victory in the preceding Iowa Caucuses and note that New Hampshire was, demographically, tailored to fit the groups where the Vermont Senator draws his greatest support.
Regardless, both campaigns are pulling out all the stops for the Silver State. In particular, close attention is being given to the resolution of caucuses where there is a tie. In the Iowa Caucus, ties were resolved by coin flips - and Clinton confounded probability by apparently winning them all
In Nevada, ties are not resolved by coin flips but by card draws. According to a state party memo, a draw only happens when a delegate needs to be awarded for one candidate or the other. The party then provides an unopened deck of playing cards. Specific steps must be taken. The deck should be shuffled seven times. A representative from each campaign picks a single card. The high card wins. In cases of cards of the same rank, the card suit controls the outcome with spades being the highest followed by hearts, diamonds and clubs.
A major dispute erupted between the rival campaigns today when Clinton spokesman Jennifer Palmieri announced that John Henry “Doc” Holliday would once again oversee resolution of caucus ties for Clinton. The reappearance of Holliday surprised many observers, since he was known to be battling health problems. Palmieri moved aggressively to staunch those rumors, leaning into Holliday with a smile as she promised “Doc can go all day and all night – and then some! Can’t you, my lovin’ man?”
Holliday’s presence on Clinton’s campaign team has renewed fire from Sanders supporters, who cite it as yet another example, alongside that of Henry Kissinger, where Clinton is willing to seek advice from individuals with checkered pasts.
Holliday is already no stranger to controversy in this campaign. His role as Clinton’s Director for Tie-Breaking in the Iowa Caucus erupted into a fierce Twitter war with Sanders caucus observer Ike Clanton.
Meanwhile, the Sanders campaign is wrestling with its own emerging crisis, as bare-knuckle enforcer Nicky Santoro announced he was flying to Las Vegas to ensure a Sanders victory next weekend.
Nevada campaign experts see Santoro’s involvement as a mixed bag. While Santoro’s presence at the caucuses could certainly affect turnout for Clinton, he has a record of controversial past statements, such as his 1995 boast that there are “a lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta’ do it right.”
The Sanders campaign immediately put out a press statement saying that the Senator had neither asked for nor wanted Santoro’s help.
Damage control efforts got off to a rocky start however when the Senator himself publicly confronted Santoro as he disembarked at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. A profanity-laced shouting match ensued that immediately went viral on YouTube, ending with Santoro bellowing “since when did I ever ask your permission to come out here? You said I’m bringing heat on you? Get this through your head - you only exist out here because of me! Don’t ever go over my head behind my back again! You been warned!”
With only a week to go, and polling for Nevada notoriously unpredictable, it is anyone’s guess who will win on February 20. But it is already shaping up as a memorable contest.