LOVELOCK - Nevada has been named in the headlines as one of the key "battle ground" states that may determine the winner of the race between President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney.
To win in the Silver State, Romney campaign organizers appear to be following through on their slogan "Every Town Counts." Last week, two of them traveled from Reno and Las Vegas to talk political strategy and gear up Republican leaders in Lovelock and other towns across northern Nevada.
In a breakfast meeting at the Cowpoke Café, Romney campaign organizers Scott Scheid and Jacob Fullmer asked local Republican leaders Jim Shirley, Carol Shank and Clarence Hultgren to rally local support for Romney and help prepare the community for major campaign events in Pershing County. The organizers said they are of course confident Romney will win but, in a tight race for the White House, they aren't taking any chances. Rural votes are critical in Nevada and the Pershing County GOP leaders agreed.
"We're just kind of explaining to Jim, Carol and our leadership out here what our general election strategy is," said Scheid, political director for the Romney campaign in Nevada. "There's nothing top secret, just touching base. We're going to Winnemucca next, then Battle Mountain and Elko, to meet with our organization in each one of those places."
There will be plenty of political events including in-person campaign stops by Romney across the rural areas of northern Nevada, according to Scheid.
"We'll have a lot of events this summer, nothing on the calendar yet," he said. "We're just trying to let people know what we're doing before the general election. Here in Pershing County, we want to do house parties. Obama did this in 2008, very effectively."
Scheid asked the local Republican leaders to hold events, like house parties, to expand the network of local Romney supporters.
"We'll send you a packet with a DVD of Gov. Romney, sign-in sheets, yard signs, stickers, voter registration cards," he said. "You invite people to your house, people who aren't really involved in politics, you draw them in and build up your network. You want them to fan it out and have their own parties. That's number one - we need to schedule one of those very quickly."
Scheid also asked for a list of local small business owners, lawyers, doctors, teachers, police and firefighters to go on record and endorse Gov. Romney.
"We're going to want the whole spectrum of people to be able to go on record and explain why they support Gov. Romney and why his vision for America is better than Barack Obama's," he said. "It's going to be a very clear message that Obama's policies are not working and have failed Nevada. We're going to go from private business to the public sector and we're going to get all these people ready in every county throughout Nevada."
Scheid and Fullmer told local GOP leaders to be ready on short notice to help organize the community for major Republican events in Pershing County.
"Another thing is, Gov. Romney's going to come up here and tour northern Nevada several times so we need an events committee," Scheid said. "When I call you up on Saturday and say Jim, Gov. Romney's coming up on Tuesday, we need to have people ready to go. We need to expand our network and let people in this county take ownership of the campaign."
The name of the game will be voter registration everywhere in Nevada, including the rural counties, Scheid said.
"We have a deficit right now in the state of Nevada. There's more registered Democrats than there are Republicans so we need to make up that gap with registration," Scheid said. "Latino outreach is big. We've got to make sure we reach out in an effective way to them. Nevada is very winnable but we've got to turn out every Republican, every Independent, even some Democrats that go our way, in every place in Nevada, not only Clark and Washoe but everywhere."
After the meeting, Shank agreed the campaign strategy for Pershing County will be necessary to overcome highly-populated Democratic strongholds like Clark County.
"We can't just sit back and say we know that he's going to win in this county which we do know," she said. "We need to make sure that he wins big. I'm just glad to see you guys out here in the rurals because it's important."
Shank called the 2012 election "the most important election in our lifetime" for the changes in federal government she wants to protect future generations. Romney would be a good start in the right direction leading to a leaner administration.
"We need to get it right. If we don't get it right, our country is not going to be the same for our children, grandchildren as it was for us," she explained. "It's extremely important that we change the direction of our country. The Obama administration is trying to totally change us from a republic to a socialistic government. If he gets another term, the executive orders out of his administration are going to take away whatever freedoms we have left and totally bankrupt this country."
As well as hosting house parties, rallying local Republicans, running a produce business, serving on the county commission and in economic development, Shank is chairwoman of the Pershing County Republican Party. On top of all this, she'll be doing her best to change the minds of Obama supporters.
"Everybody's entitled to their opinion but they really need to wake up and realize what's happening in this country," she said. "We've been strong forever, let's continue to be strong. We've been a strong Republican county but what they were talking about is very important - every vote is going to count."
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