It’s all over, and after all the exhaustive campaigning and prognosticating, Nevada’s six electoral votes fell to Barack Obama. Political pundits Steve Sebelius, Jon Ralston and Chuck Muth share thoughts on what happened to the GOP in Nevada.
Steve Sebelius: political columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal - “No Ground Game”
“I can speak especially for Nevada, because of the incredible ground game that (Obama) had. This idea of early voting, of getting people to vote early, was an idea that no more than 40 percent of the people in Nevada, maybe 41 percent, had taken advantage of in 2006. In 2008, it shot up to 57 percent and that was because of the Obama organizational machine. They got in there, they banked these early votes, they kept track of voters, and if that ground game was replicated in other states, as I imagine it obviously was, that, I think, is one of the big reasons he won.”
Chuck Muth: GOP blogger, Muth’s Truths - “No Ground Game”
“The only thing as certain as gravity, is the Republicans never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity. They blew another one again here. The spin coming out of the Republicans, that ‘we’re outperforming what we did in 2008, and we made a million contacts.’ They got beaten at the ground game big time, the Reid machine just rolled over the Sandoval machine in Nevada, like it wasn’t even there, because it wasn’t there. It really wasn’t, and that’s what it was. I mean, grass roots, get out the vote, early voting, targeting – that’s what won the election.”
Jon Ralston: columnist, Ralston Reports - “No Ground Game, And Failure To Connect With Minorities”
“The Republicans are just absolutely tone deaf when it comes to talking to the burgeoning Hispanic community here and elsewhere. Unless they find a way to do that they will be consistently relegated to also-ran status, especially in Nevada, but elsewhere, and there’s a lot of people taking about Nevada in the aftermath of this election.”