What's with Nevada? Polls say for * when * putting nuclear waste there?

[TexasSissy]

What IS up with Nevadians? Bush is trucking nuclear waste across the country to dump in Nevada, and Nevada bends over and says "put it here"?

Man oh Man, how the GOP negative ad machine has done some damage! I can't figure how else this could happen. The people in this country have gone mad! (well, half of 'em, anyway)

[randr]

1. This is one classic example of a B* flip flop

[LisaL]

2. Well, if those idiots want to vote for Bush-

maybe they deserve to have their state as a nuclear waste dump.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. Fear of a terrorist attack sells big here

Muhammad Atta and several of the 9/11 hijackers had a meeting at a Las Vegas motel on the Strip, well publicized the last few years. Many reports of a millenium plot on Las Vegas that was thwarted. The casino and hotel employees I talk to are convinced the major hotels are a likely target in the future. If Kerry loses some support in Las Vegas, which is heavily Democratic, he will not win Nevada although the voter registration drive here is immense and impressive.

In contrast, in everyday conversations I seldom hear anyone talk about Yucca Mountain. It's almost accepted as a done deal.

Gore blew it in 2000 by not visiting Nevada more or making Yucca an issue. Bush clearly lied and was evasive on his Yucca stance in 2000, saying he had not decided whether to make Yucca a temporary site. That meant he HAD decided to make Yucca a permanent site.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. My understanding is they went there for the strip clubs

Shit New York City was hit by Al Qaida. New York state is for Kerry.
Ditto for D.C.

In 1999 Ahmed Ressam was nabbed in my state, Washington, for trying to smuggle in explosives. These explosives were to be used in Los Angeles. The whole west coast is for Kerry.

All these Red states that say they fear a terrorist attack make no sense. The only red state that suffered an attack was Oklahoma which had one from a home grown group.

[Lexingtonian]

5. well, don't forget

Fifty years ago they did real nuclear testing west of Las Vegas and the locals thought the mushroom clouds were just kind of interesting.

The people who have lived in the state for a long time are mostly minimally religious but conservative mining/ranching people. The major migrations to Nevada after WW2 were mostly Mormons and military people, so until the Sixties it was politically not that distinguishable from Wyoming. Secularly committed educated people and nonwhite people really only come into Nevada in large numbers via California with the the growth of LV and Reno/Lake Tahoe maybe thirty years ago. In the Nineties the migration into the state was Hispanic and Asian people and Californians on the one hand, and young white conservative people coming in from Utah and the west slope on the other.

Don't forget that LV is a new city in a desert, which means a place that is kind of imaginary to most of the people who live in it, who are mostly migrants to it. People have a way of not putting down very strong roots in such places and often don't feel a strong kind of citizenship in the society or commitment to it. The same is true for Phoenix, San Diego, LA. There's also the trend for the Southwest that white people are a dwindling presence, which frightens many of the ones that want to believe that the colonial/settlement arrangements of the past century are the divine order rather than an aberration.

The way I read the polls, it's a 49/49/2 split there. Of course the Bush campaign has tried to get every rural white voter and every Mormon in the state to register and turn out for them. Their problem is that Nevada is probably maxed out for them. Hispanic voter registration by Hispanic Democratis is supposedly very effective this year- one fellow in LV with a few friends and helper has gotten 24,000 new registrations and expects to pass 35,000 by the deadline in a few days. That would be equivalent to ~5% of the Nevada electorate that turned out in 2000. Needless to say, both sides are going to do GOTV in a way the city and the state haven't seen in a long long time.

[Nashyra]

6. It is very tight here. I know I live here

Anyway I have posted before about "Douglas" County and we have had a tremendous turnout for the GOTV. For the first time ever we have a Democratic office in Gardnerville which is big. We have been walking and dropping literature for the last two weeks, Senator Reid is way up in the polls and that will help Kerry. We are less than 2% behind in the polls here. Another reason is that our economy is not as bad as in other places of the country. Yucca Mountain is big here in Northern Nevada but not as big as in Las Vegas, and lastly we have alot of rural counties in Nevada. But Yucca Mountain should be a nationwide debate because it will have to be SHIPPED here from all across the country, and the danger it faces coming across country is more likely than once it is buried here. So Nevadans are not anymore stupid than those from other states that vote for the *. I agree with Matcom's post, if anyone votes for the * they are fucking stupid.EOM.......

[sr_pacifica]

8. Nevada demographics have changed

since the last election, enough so it is possible for Kerry to capture its electoral votes. I don't live there but visit and my own casual random polling of people in restaurants, construction workers, and elderly ladies in casinos shows Kerry yea, Bush no.

[Bleacher Creature]

7. It's because he "sticks to his guns and isn't a flip-flopper"

Nevermind the fact that his guns are about to shoot nuclear waste all over them and their children.

Morons. Normally, I would say that they should get what they deserve. Unfortunately this country cannot tolerate another four years of this crowd.

[featherman]

9. Actually, I don't know what you are talking about - Kerry is leading

The polls are just polls and most are oversampling GOP respondents. The notorious Gallup has Bush at only +2 which adjusts into a lead for Kerry when factoring in Gallup's crappy sampling.

Nevada is a very likely state for Kerry. At this time I like Nevada for Kerry at about +2.