David Damore

One of the perplexities of the ongoing campaign season is why a state that is likely to play such a significant role in 2008 has such a poverty of reliable polling data. Putting aside the obvious fact that Nevada has a poverty of a lot of things, a constant refrain of many trying to get up to speed about the state's politics is why the dearth of polls in the Silver State?

Except for the occasional willingness of campaigns to release their polls (which coincidentally enough tend to favor their side; see Titus, Dina for recent examples), statewide polling for public consumption comes from two sources: Intermittent releases by the Las Vegas Review Journal and the Reno Gazette Journal and national operations (some of them internet based) that occasionally dabble in the state. As consumers of these polls know, they tend not to be all that good.

From left:Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), state Sen. Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas), state Sen. Joe Heck (R-Henderson).LAS VEGAS - Perhaps the biggest irony of Gov. Jim Gibbons' call for a special session of the legislature June 23 is that he could potentially be providing a golden opportunity for the politician who could defeat him in 2010.

Three state legislators, Assembly Speaker Barbara (D-Las Vegas) and state Sens. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) and Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas), are rumored to be interested in Gibbons' job, and any one of them could use the session to strike a first blow in an eventual campaign against him.

Taking into account his "no solutions are off the table" pledge and short of Gibbons shooting the moon politically, here is what we can expect to see next week from the looming gubernatorial contest.

From left, SD-5 candidate Shirley Breeden, Greg Esposito, and AD-21 candidate Ellen Spiegel in Henderson last week.: Although most of the Democratic establishment is staying positive about Breeden's candidacy, the NSEA's endorsment of her opponent last week is a troubling sign. Politicker Photo.LAS VEGAS-Months ago, intent on retaking the state senate, Nevada Democrats cast their sights on Senate District 5 as one of two key targets. But hopes of capturing the seat may be fading as their candidate, a self-described "political unknown," has failed to win the endorsement of one of the pillars of the state Democratic establishment, the Nevada State Education Association.

And the endorsement of incumbent state Sen. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) by the state's teachers' union is just the latest in a series of missed opportunities for state Democrats that have led some Democratic operatives to believe their candidate, Shirley Breeden, is unlikely to defeat Heck.

LAS VEGAS-Nevada Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus said today that she has not committed to running against Republican Congressman Jon Porter in the 3rd Congressional District, but that she is "giving it very serious consideration."

Titus' comments followed a surprise announcement this morning that former Clark County chief deputy district attorney Robert Daskas was ending his bid in CD3, citing "family considerations."

Titus said she has been communicating "quite intensely" for days with both local and Washington Democrats about the race, but that she hadn't wanted to discuss it with reporters until Daskas announced his withdrawal.

"It's a big, life-changing decision," said Titus.