Nevada Democratic Party
Encyclopedia
The Nevada Democratic Party is the state affiliate of the United States Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. Its chair is Roberta Lange, and its Executive Director is Zach Zaragoza .

History

The state of Nevada has had many political parties over the years. The total number of political parties that Nevada has had is 22. Only six of these parties lasted up until the 2004 elections. These six parties are the Democrat, Republican, Independent American, Green, Natural Law and Libertarian. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party remain as the top two in the state.

With the help of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 in 1864, Nevada became the 36th state in America. Lincoln’s Republican influence was considerable among the Nevada state citizens during his presidency. The first two general elections in Nevada, held in 1864 and 1867, were dominated by the Republican Party.

In 1871 the Democratic Party started to gain momentum and won four of the six constitutional offices. The offices won by the Democrats were governor, lieutenant governor, state treasurer and attorney general.

Towards the beginning of the 1900s, a political party was formed that brought many Republicans and Democrats together from the western states. This political party was known as the Silver Party
Silver Party
The Silver Party was a political party in the United States, most successful in Nevada, active from 1892-1911. The party supported a platform of bimetallism and "Free Silver."...

 because of the federal government’s shortage of silver coins in 1873. The Silver party played a prominent role in Nevada’s politics in the 1894 and 1898 elections.

The Silver Party later formed the Silver Democratic Party. The Silver Democratic Party was prominent in Nevada until the election of 1906. After the election of 1906, the Democratic and Republican parties became the two primary parties in Nevada.

During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 of 1929, the two primary parties split many constitutional and federal offices. After the Great Depression, the citizens of Nevada preferred the Democratic Party over the Republican Party. Democrats were well received by Nevada and won most of the statewide and federal races from 1932 until 1995.

Symbol

The symbol of the Democratic Party is the donkey. The animal became associated with the party in 1928 during Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

's presidential campaign. Jackson was nicknamed a jackass by his opponents. He then decided that the image of a donkey would be a good symbol for his campaign posters, as it represented an animal that was strong-willed. Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the scourge of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine...

 used the donkey as a Democratic symbol in newspaper cartoons and from then on the donkey was the symbol for the Democratic Party.

Convention platform

The current platform for the Nevada Democratic Party was ratified in 2010. The topics that are covered are standard to the Democratic Party. Armed service/veterans, civil rights, education, elections and government, environment and energy, foreign policy, jobs and the economy and working Nevadans are the areas that are discussed.

Current Democratic officeholders

The Nevada Democratic Party controls four of the state's six statewide offices, a majority in the Nevada Senate and a majority in the Nevada Assembly. Democrats also hold one of the state's U.S. Senate seats and one of the state's three U.S. House seats.
U.S. Senate
  • Harry Reid
    Harry Reid
    Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...



U.S. House of Representatives
  • Shelley Berkley
    Shelley Berkley
    Rochelle "Shelley" Berkley is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999, and a candidate for U.S. Senate. She is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education, and legal career:...

    , 1st District
    Nevada's 1st congressional district
    Nevada's 1st congressional district occupies most of Nevada's largest city, Las Vegas, as well as parts of North Las Vegas and parts of unincorporated Clark County. The district now leans Democratic....


Statewide offices

  • Secretary of State: Ross Miller
    Ross Miller
    Ross James Miller is an American politician of the Democratic Party and the current Secretary of State of Nevada. Elected at the age of 30, he was the youngest Secretary of State in the history of Nevada and the youngest Secretary of State in the country at the time of his election.-Education and...

  • State Treasurer
    Nevada State Treasurer
    The Nevada State Treasurer is an elected office in the U.S. state of Nevada. The Nevada State Treasurer is based in Carson City, Nevada. The Treasurer is elected for 4 year terms and the current Treasurer for the 2007-2011 term is Kate Marshall....

    : Kate Marshall
    Kate Marshall
    Kate Marshall is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. She is currently the Nevada State Treasurer.-Education and early career:...

  • Attorney General
    Nevada Attorney General
    The Nevada Attorney General is the top legal officer for the state of Nevada. The functions of the office are set forth in Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 228. The Attorney General represents the people of Nevada in civil and criminal matters before trial, appellate and the supreme courts of...

    : Catherine Cortez Masto
    Catherine Cortez Masto
    Catherine Cortez Masto is an American politician. She is the current Attorney General of Nevada. She was elected to replace George Chanos. She is a member of the Democratic Party...

  • Controller
    Comptroller
    A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...

    : Kim Wallin

Executive Board

  • Chair: Roberta Lange
  • 1st Vice-Chair: James Brown
  • 2nd Vice-Chair: Theresa Navarro
  • Secretary: Marla Turner
  • Treasurer: Jan Churchill

Nevada Democratic National Committee Members

  • Senator Steven Horsford
    Steven Horsford
    Steven Horsford is a Democratic member and Majority Leader of the Nevada Senate, representing Clark County District 4 since 2004 . He is Nevada's first African-American state senate Majority Leader.-Biography:...

  • Executive Director of Emerge Nevada Erin Bilbray-Kohn
  • President of the Ramirez Group Andres Ramirez

County chairs (ex officio)

  • Carson City- Marty McGarry
  • Churchill County
    Churchill County, Nevada
    Churchill County is a county located in the western U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 23,982. As of July 1, 2007, the population of Churchill County was estimated at 27,190. The county, named after Mexican-American War hero brevet Brigadier General Sylvester Churchill,...

    - Nyla Howell
  • Clark County
    Clark County, Nevada
    -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,375,765 people, 512,253 households, and 339,693 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 71.6% White , 9.1% Black, 5.7% Asian, 0.8% American Indian and 12.8% of other or mixed race. 22.0% were Hispanic of any race...

    - Chris Miller
  • Douglas County
    Douglas County, Nevada
    Douglas County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of 2000, the population was 41,259. As of 2010, the population was estimated to be 46,997.- History :...

    - Cindy Trigg
  • Elko County- Wendy Ispisua
  • Esmeralda County - Vacant
  • Eureka County- Vacant
  • Lander County - Vacant
  • Humboldt County
    Humboldt County, Nevada
    Humboldt County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of 2007, the population was estimated to be 18,052. Its county seat is Winnemucca.The county was the site of an arrest in 2000 that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision Hiibel v...

     - K.C. Harrison
  • Lincoln County
    Lincoln County, Nevada
    Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 4,165. Its county seat is Pioche.-History:...

    - Ron Hibble
  • Lyon County
    Lyon County, Nevada
    Lyon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 census, the population was 51,980. Its county seat is Yerington.-History:...

    - Claudia Conlon
  • Mineral County
    Mineral County, Nevada
    Mineral County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 5,071. In 2009, it was estimated to have dropped to 4,662. Its county seat is Hawthorne.-History:...

    - Tad Williams
  • Nye County- Janice Bearss
  • Pershing County- Roger Mancebo
  • Storey County- George Foster
  • Washoe County
    Washoe County, Nevada
    Washoe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. The population was 421,407 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is Reno. Washoe County includes the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area.-History:...

    - Dorie Guy
  • White Pine County- Marion J. (Sam) Hanson

Controversy

The Nevada Democratic Party was sued by Righthaven LLC
Righthaven LLC
Righthaven LLC is a copyright holding company founded in early 2010, which enters agreements from its partner newspapers after finding that their content has been copied to online sites without permission, in order to engage in litigation against the site owners for copyright infringement...

 for copyright infringement on July 9, 2010. The allegations were that the Nevada Democratic Party had posted stories from the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is published in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada, and one of two daily newspapers in Las Vegas . It is the flagship publication of Stephens Media LLC...

on the party’s website without permission. Righthaven LLC is a partner of the Review-Journal that sues website owners that post unauthorized stories from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Righthaven LLC wanted between $75,000 and $150,000 in damages and an order for the Democrat’s to stop infringing on the copyright. On September 14, 2010 the two parties reached a settlement.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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