Jon Ralston

I’d like to congratulate the winner of the Nevada Democratic caucus: Harry Reid.

What’s that, you say? Reid wasn’t running? What am I talking about?

Saturday may well be the day that altered the course of the Democratic presidential race, when Hillary Clinton blunted Bernie Sanders’ campaign, when she was forced to work as hard as she ever has for a week (with a little help from a lot of friends) and slingshotted her with new momentum into South Carolina and then Super Tuesday. Nevada may indeed prove to be the day that saved Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Update: Clinton takes Nevada caucus, Sanders makes inroads with Latinos

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But the caucus, which Clinton won by about 5 percentage points, also cemented Prince Harry as a man Machiavelli would have bowed to, a man who with one eye who still sees the field better and is still more dangerous, effective and cunning as any pol the state (the country?) has ever seen. Clinton may not have won Nevada if Reid had not interceded last week when the man feigning neutrality saw what everyone in the Democratic elite saw: Sanders erasing a once mountainous lead and on the verge of perhaps winning Nevada and rendering inoperative the “Hillary is more electable” argument.

The story of the Nevada caucus is that a lame-duck senator and a self-neutered union conspired to revive the Clinton campaign in a remarkable bit of backroom maneuvering that helped Madame Secretary crush Sanders in Clark County, the key to winning almost any statewide election. Combined with a Clinton machine, erected last spring and looking invincible, that suddenly had to scrape the rust off its gears and turn out her voters, Caucus Day also was a remarkable story of an indomitable candidate, her nonpareil Nevada staff and a ragtag but committed Sanders operation that made them sweat.

But, ultimately, what turned this race was Reid, who clearly came home to find that Clinton’s insurmountable lead was being surmounted. Despite being furious with Team Clinton for its panic-stricken spin that Nevada was as white as Iowa and New Hampshire, undermining Reid’s argument why the state was given early-state status (and, you know, being false, too), the senator decided he would single-handedly save the state for Clinton.

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Update: Suspicious votes, long times at Dem caucus

In the middle of last week, Reid made a phone call, first reported by The New York Times’ Amy Chozick, to D. Taylor, the head of the parent of the Culinary Union local in Las Vegas. Before that call, the Culinary, facing difficult contract negotiations and seeing no advantage in enmeshing itself in a bloody internecine fight, had declared it was more Swiss than Hispanic. With the Culinary not endorsing and unwilling to even engage in the caucus, turnout at six casino sites on the Las Vegas Strip was forecast at a combined 100 or so. That is, insignificant.

“He’s been extremely cooperative,” Reid told Chozick of Taylor. “Probably 100 organizers will be at the caucus sites and in hotels to make sure people know what they’re doing.”

But Reid did not stop there. He also called casino executives, sources confirm, with a simple message: “Let your people go.”

That is, he wanted to ensure the workers would be allowed time off from work to caucus. No one said no to Prince Harry.

Despite their common public neutrality, Taylor and Reid surely believe, as do most Democratic power brokers, that a Sanders nomination would be a disaster. Reid knew that Taylor would get his swarms of organizers to turn out mostly Latino workers, who would likely vote for Clinton.

A gamble? Yes. But like going all-in with a straight flush.

And it paid off.

On Saturday, Clinton not only won all six casino sites, most handily, by a combined delegate count of 109-52. And instead of an aggregate 100 or so employees, hundreds of workers showed up to caucus, thanks to Reid to Taylor to organizers.

Yes, that margin of 57 ended up being dwarfed by Clinton’s final margin, which at this writing may be 600-plus delegates. But those Culinary workers at the Strip sites were not the only ones who caucused – some of those who were not working went to their home sites. And Reid also encouraged leaders of other unions, I’m told, to rally their members to juice Clark County for Clinton.

Clinton won Clark by 10 points, ensuring that Sanders would have to crush her in the north and rurals to win. He did not.

Part of that is the lesson learned from ’08, when Clinton did not campaign enough outside of Clark County and lost the delegate battle while winning the popular vote. Her campaign, led by field maestro Robby Mook (who won the state for her in ’08) and 2016 Nevada boss Emmy Ruiz, did not repeat that mistake and Clinton’s own insane schedule in Nevada the last week – visiting those Strip sites and touching every base she could – helped save her, along with a raft of big-name surrogates who arrived like the cavalry last week.

It was surgical. It was impressive. It worked.

But most of all, this was a familiar story for those who have watched Democratic politics here. Just as in 2010, when the Culinary helped Reid win an impossible reelection, the pairing produced a dramatic victory.

“The Reid-Culinary bond is strong and it wins and loses elections,” said one insider. That bond has been frayed by the union’s battle over Obamacare and near-deification of Republican Sen. Dean Heller for fighting against the excise tax Reid would not (at least publicly).

No more.

A lot was at stake for both – Reid’s national and in-state credibility and the state’s early-caucus status (kudos to his superb political lieutenant, Rebecca Lambe, who runs the party), and the Culinary’s reputation as a powerhouse that can sway elections.

Other factors were critical. The Hispanic vote was no landslide for Clinton, but her team (and Reid) also know that in an Obamaless year, she could win the African-American vote (she won it more than 3-to-1). And turnout this cycle – 80,000 or so – was a third less than it was in 2008, showing Sanders is no Obama when it comes to expanding the electorate.

But the story here is about the Culinary and especially Harry Reid, who helped steer the state to Clinton. They gave a whole new definition to neutrality (they will both endorse soon, I’d guess) and may have changed the course of history.

Jon Ralston has been covering Nevada politics for more than a quarter-century. See his blog at ralstonreports.com and watch "Ralston Live" at 5:30 p.m. weekdays on KNPB.