Will GOP candidates ignore Nevada's struggles during debate?

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Economy ,; Campaign 2012 ,; State Politics

June Rogovsky participates in a "Occupy Wall Street"demonstration, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, in Las Vegas. Union officials, college students and homeowners facing foreclosure marched down the Las Vegas Strip in support of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

(Credit: AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

The scrappy state of Nevada, eager for attention from political leaders who could hold the answers to its economic problems, has finagled its way near the top of the primary calendar and tonight hosts the eighth Republican presidential debate.

Tonight's debate, sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference, is intended to bring a special focus to issues that matter in the West. In Nevada, nothing is more pressing than the record unemployment and foreclosure rates.

With the implosion of the housing market and the development boom in in the Silver State, Nevada -- and Las Vegas in particular -- became "the epicenter of the Great Recession," as Las Vegas Sun columnist J. Patrick Coolican wrote. Nevada's 13.4 percent unemployment is the highest in the nation, and the state ranks first in foreclosures. More than 80 percent of Las Vegas homeowners are underwater, Coolican points out, and September home prices were 8.6 percent lower than the year before.

Nevada residents are searching for a way out of their economic misery, but so far the GOP candidates have given them little reason for optimism.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the current GOP presidential frontrunner, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week that the solution to the housing crisis is to let the market bottom out.

"Don't try and stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom," he said. "Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up."

He went on to say the Obama administration has "slow-walked the foreclosure process" and "as a result we still have a foreclosure overhead."

Romney said the idea of helping people refinance their homes so they can stay in them is "one worth further consideration," but he added, "I'm not signing on until I find out who's going to pay and who's going to get bailed out."

That answer may be one of the more substantive statements Nevadans have heard from the candidates on the issue, if not the most comforting. The housing crisis has been all but ignored by the candidates, the Los Angeles Times reports -- with hardly any mention on any of the candidates' websites and few remarks about it on the campaign trail.

Even Romney -- who won the 2008 Nevada caucus and is campaigning hard in the state again -- made no mention of the housing crisis in his 59-point jobs plan, which he unveiled at a North Las Vegas trucking company.

The remarks other candidates have offered have been similar to what Romney told the Review-Journal. The Las Vegas Sun notes that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (who's not participating in tonight's debate) has called for privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and letting "the housing market settle in order to see sustainable growth." Rep. Michele Bachmann, meanwhile, has urged the "repeal of the jobs and housing destruction act, also known as Dodd-Frank." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul also want the law repealed, while Paul has said the federal government should let the market handle sinking home prices.

The candidates have paid about as much attention to voters in Nevada as they have to their issues. Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul held rallies in Nevada on Monday, the Sun notes.

Meanwhile, the state's attempt at earning more relevancy in the primaries may have backfired. By moving up the date of their caucuses and helping send the entire primary calendar off-kilter, Nevada Republicans have seriously angered their GOP brethren in New Hampshire, who are urging the candidates to boycott's Nevada's caucuses.

Huntsman was the first to declare he'd boycott the state, and Bachmann, Gingrich, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum have followed suit.

Perhaps the candidates have said little on the housing crisis because the situation looks so dreary: experts say Nevada's housing market and building industry could take decades to recover, the L.A. Times notes.

Voters aren't much more optimistic: A Las Vegas Sun poll conducted in September found that 77 percent of Nevadans think the state is headed in the wrong direction, and 57 percent said the worst is yet to come.

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
Follow on Twitter »

32 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment

See all 32 Comments

by ttaoin2010 October 19, 2011 10:24 AM EDT

Yep. These people need Help. It's tough paying for a $500,00 house when you only make $45,000 a year. Give up the house and find a nice rental. Expecting the government to make your house payment is pretty stupid. Kinda like buying a house you can't afford.......

Reply to this comment


by lg144 October 19, 2011 8:08 PM EDT: Kinda stupid like knowing the people you're lending to can't afford it but lending them money anyway.


by BShred October 18, 2011 9:54 PM EDT: Oh yeah Romney, don't do anything, just be hands off and Laizze-Faire and let the economy bottom out. You sure aren't "hands off" when it comes to civil law... or drugs... or overseas involvement. But when it comes to the economy, oh yeah, just let the bandits and looters and gunslingers pillage and plunder and terrorize as much as they want, take the lone sheriff's revolver so he can't do anything and "don't worry, it'll all work itself out". Yeah, I'm really sure the "order" that these lawless criminals can work out among themselves is going to be real beneficial to the rest of the population. Any idiot with half-a-brain would say send in the brigades and sort this mess out with force and restore the order that used to be there... but republicans, we need to "let it all work itself out". You idiots.; Reply to this comment


by jynyc77 October 18, 2011 8:57 PM EDT: "Nevada residents are searching for a way out of their economic misery, but so far the GOP candidates have given them little reason for optimism."

Stephanie Condon must be on the Obama payroll. Why on earth would the GOP candidates have spoken specifically about Nevada's plight to date? The only politician that has gone out of his way to mention Nevada was Obama, who criticized companies for hosting conferences there a few years ago (while his glutton wife takes 40 close friends on a 5 star vacation to Spain).; Reply to this comment


by tsigili October 18, 2011 7:18 PM EDT: Housing can only be resolved over time. There are no easy solutions for way the industry mishandled and abused the mortgage business.; Reply to this comment


by dzaffina October 18, 2011 7:12 PM EDT: "Don't try and stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom," he said. "Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up."

translation screw the middleclass, let them lose their homes and any money they have invested. then the rich will come in and pay pennies on the dollars to buy the homes, and then rent them back to the middleclass. its part of the republican 30 year reganomics "stimulas" plan.; Reply to this comment


by TimeIsNowfor99 October 18, 2011 6:15 PM EDT: It is very difficult to get approved for an investment property right now. Banks have chaged their rules in the last two months. Pretty much need to be rich or have cash to buy outright. This is another example of why there is a OWS movement. I take what Mitt says as screw the people who about to lose their homes, ruin their families, just get it over with so the banks and rick can vulture in and make some more money off of the 99%. Go get them Nevada. People like Mitt, repub or dem are going to have a rude awakening the next election. Fascists...; Reply to this comment


by maiingan October 18, 2011 6:08 PM EDT: Of course the GOP will ignore "Nevada's struggles." That's because the GOP doesn't include the struggles of people plagued by unemployment and foreclosure in its realm of concern. The GOP only cares about the "haves." To be fair, I haven't seen either major party show any practical concern for college graduates with excellent, useful educations get started in their careers.; Reply to this comment

by kokonuts2 October 18, 2011 6:07 PM EDT

The Republicans are capable of ignoring anything real. You must understand that the GOP is not about reality. It's about building "A shining City on a Hill." Turns out, the city is Beijing.

Reply to this comment


by rightiesarewrong October 18, 2011 6:22 PM EDT: nice

by Robert_In_Texas October 18, 2011 6:03 PM EDT

In October 2010, in Reno, NV, Harry Reid told supporters "It is part of my constitutional duties to do congressionally directed spending," which explains the plight of the economy. Unfortunately, the Constitution doesn't say anything close to that. If the lower House introduce a bill that called for cutting something and Reid didn't like it, he wouldn't put it up to a vote. The House voted to repeal the health care bill - Reid refused to put the repeal up for a Senate vote. It's what they say that people remember not what they do to the contrary.

Reply to this comment


by dzaffina October 18, 2011 7:20 PM EDT: you mean like every bill introduced by the republican congress for cutting taxes on the corporate wealthy. so if it wasn't for reid, the rich would not be taxes at all by now. thanks harry.

by Robert_In_Texas October 18, 2011 6:02 PM EDT

Reply to this comment


by rightiesarewrong October 18, 2011 6:20 PM EDT: harry is a mormon, and mormons believe that all people should have health care. i know what a schmuck huh.