Busted in Vegas

Las Vegas

"I feel dazed and stunned," said Margot, a 25-year-old UCLA law student as she stared at the TV showing John Kerry slipping 136,000 votes behind George W. Bush in the crucial Ohio tally and nearly 4 million nationally. "I know this is a great loss, but I'm numb. Like it hasn't fully hit me yet."

Her words pretty much summed up the postelection scene on the second floor of the aptly named Ice House Lounge. Hundreds of volunteer canvassers who had poured into Nevada for a final ground campaign to defeat Bush were now gathered to help one another adjust to a bitter reality--another four-year term for the incumbent.

Election day in Las Vegas had started much better than it was ending. More than 1,000 volunteers mustered at 7 am in a hangar-sized tent near downtown and were methodically equipped with two-way radios, Palm Pilots, precinct maps and voter lists. They were one division in the small army assembled by pro-Democratic 527 groups and coordinated by America Coming Together (ACT). Their spirits were soaring. "We're hitting 45,000 doors today with 143 teams of seven people each," said a hopeful Mike Garcia, president of the Los Angeles-based Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union, home of the legendary Justice for Janitors movement. "In twenty-three years of political activity, I have never seen anything like this sort of intensity."

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