Nevada Caucuses

Viva Las Vegas--It's a great place to visit, but not if you are a presidential candidate, at least not some of them. Wow, what a mess for the Republicans right now. Iowa wants January 3rd (or maybe the 5th) for its caucuses. New Hampshire wants January 10th. South Carolina wants January 21st. And Florida wants January 31st. And then there's Nevada, which is supposed to be among the "First 4" states in the primary contest. Nevada wants a Saturday for its caucus: January 14th. But New Hampshire doesn't like that since it's too close to New Hampshire's date of the 10th. That could mean candidates spend some of the time in Nevada instead of time they would normally spend in the Granite State. So Nevada should wait until January 17th. But, again, Nevada wants a Saturday caucus. The 17th is a Tuesday. Problems. Big problems. It's tough to see how everyone can be happy here. If Nevada sticks to its desire to hold a Saturday caucus and tries to appease New Hampshire by waiting, then it would have to pick Saturday, January 21st. But, again, that's South Carolina's date. So, unless Nevada gives up its wishes for Saturday and takes the 17th or a date near it, I don't see how this ends. In the meantime, it's interesting to watch how the candidates treat this battle.

Rick Santorum's campaign said he's canceling his Nevada events (pretty sure he may mention that a time or twelve during his Iowa stops this week). Santorum joins Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann in announcing they will boycott campaigning in that state until this mess gets figured out. Two of the bigger names in the race, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, haven't joined in the boycott movement. In fact, Romney goes to Nevada this week to open his campaign headquarters. And Ron Paul is making some kind of "major announcement" in Nevada this week, too. Ahh, the politics of politics.

One other random note...Nevada's State GOP Chair is Amy Tarkanian. I had to wonder if she is related to "Tark the Shark", Jerry Tarkanian, the former UNLV men's basketball coach. Apparently, she is his daughter-in-law...just in case your mind wonders about random things, too. I don't know when he wants the caucuses held.