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Titus to announce new bid for Congress
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Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Rep. Dina Titus chats with Republic Services workers during a shift change on Election Day in 2010 at Republic Services in Henderson. » Buy this photo
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Former Rep. Dina Titus plans to announce on Thursday she is running for the 1st Congressional District covering much of urban Las Vegas, according to a Democratic Party insider.
Titus, a Democrat, would face state Sen. Ruben Kihuen in a highly competitive primary, pitting the veteran lawmaker against a rising Hispanic politician seeking to become Nevada's first Hispanic congressman.
Hispanics make up 43 percent of the district, according to preliminary congressional maps.
While Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, is expected to get strong support from the Hispanic community where he grew up and still lives, Titus is counting on help from groups such as Emily's List, some Democratic supporters in Congress and on voters who backed her as a state senator for 20 years.
Some of those supporters are expected to attend Titus' Thursday announcement, which will come one week after Kihuen announced he would run in the 1st Congressional District.
Titus, 61, lives in the 1st district. She had represented the 3rd Congressional District for two years until she lost the House seat in 2010 to U.S. Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev. Instead of a rematch with Heck, Titus decided to run for a safer seat closer to home and to her longtime constituents.
Some Democrats in Nevada and in Washington were hoping Titus would compete for the 3rd district to avoid running against a Hispanic candidate who could increase Latino voter involvement and perhaps boost President Barack Obama's chances for re-election.
Yet Titus has rebuffed such entreaties and has said she didn't want to run against Heck in the swing district, where Democrats have a slight voter registration edge. Titus lost by only 1,748 votes in 2010 to Heck, who is expected to get strong financial and other support from the state and national Republican parties and outside groups to hold the House seat in 2012.
The 1st Congressional District seat, on the other hand, is the safest Democratic seat in Nevada. It long has been held by U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2012. And under new maps approved by a special state District Court panel, Democrats enjoy a 27 percentage point voter registration advantage over Republicans in the district, or 52 percent to 25 percent.
Vincenta Montoya, chair of the Si Se Puede Latino Democratic Caucus, said the organization already held one house party last Friday to help elect Kihuen. She said the group doesn't endorse candidates in primaries because it is an arm of the Democratic Party. Yet she and other Hispanics already are lining up behind Kihuen in hopes of sending one of their own to Washington.
"Dina may have stronger support nationally, but I think locally Ruben will have a lot of the support," Montoya said. "I believe Ruben has the best chance to win in that district. I wish Dina Titus the best of luck, but I will not be supporting her. I wish she would run somewhere else."
Billy Vassiliadis, a longtime Democratic consultant, said he hasn't been paying much attention to the Southern Nevada congressional races, which will involve several primaries with three seats at stake. He said competition isn't always a bad thing for the party because it can increase excitement.
"A spirited primary draws people in and can be engaging," Vassiliadis said, adding that it helps if the loser supports the winner through the general election to ensure victory. "I would say how the two handle the primary, especially the immediate post-primary, is the most important political piece."
Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal .com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.
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dina...time for you to move on...you talked the talked, walked the walk...BUT YOU NEVER PRODUCED!
GET OVER IT! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET A MONTHLY DIRECT DEPOSIT FROM THE GOVERNMENT...LAS VEGANS GOT WISE TO YOU A LONG TIME AGO....
JUST FADE AWAY..GO AWAY...FAR FAR FAR AWAY!
Dina Titus - here comes the leftist little piggy, back to feed at the public taxpayer trough yet again.
She is a useless hack, back to line her pockets with more of everyone else's money. Guess her pensions from gov and UNLV still aren't enough for her - but it never is with liberals - it's always about taking more of your money, for themselves.
At Jerry S. Dickensen apparently you are an uninformed individual who has not been following the redistricting process. The Special Masters drew up the districts. The judge agreed that no Majority minority district could be created. That means that there could not be a Congressional district that was 50%+ Latino.No one (except you) has accused the Special Masters of gerrymandering any district. The maps fairly represent the demographic distribution of the Latinos in the State. Almost 75% of the State's Latinos live in that district. No squiggly, convoluted lines were needed to be drawn to create CD1. (Gerrymander-you really shouldn't use words when you don't know what they mean.) lf you want to see a map that was gerrymandered please look at the proposed and rejected Republican map to create a 51% Latino district. Please also read your Constitution that requires the counting of every person every 10 years for the reapportionment of representatives. It does not state citizen. Reapportionment was based on the U.S. census figures. If you don't like this portion of American law then change the Constitution which has been functioning and in existence for more than 200 years. BTW your xenophobia is showing.
Ah, Jerry, I was just having fun with the moron festival being held here.
Mrnoitall, your analysis is marvelous. Very thoughtful. The shame of it is, there are many fine people who disagree with Titus on the issues, but, since they have the IQ of a mentally challenged gnat, they can't express views on the issues.
Dina..saddle shoes, really? Where's your penny loafers or poodle skirt? How's that analysis Michael Green?
According to Blogspot's posts, almost all americans would be ineligible to run for Congress, because if you worked for the State/County/City or any Federal Job including the military, or received a Grant/Welfare/VA Loan/HUD Loan/College Scholarship or assistance you are ineligible.
The truth is, to Run for Congress, you must be a US Citizen, and reside in your district, not be a convicted felon, and be 25 years of Age. Its pretty Simple, read the Constitution!
As for Dina titus, she has lived in this state longer then 90% of the people currently living in this state. Also, the fact that she Taught only 1 class is true, but it was for only one School Year. Most of her 20+ years, she taught a normal Class schedule, and how easy it is for people to forget that Tenured Teachers routinely take leaves of absenses or reduced Class schedules.
I don't have an opinion of any canidate Republican, Democrat or other, because none of them have come out with a platform or agenda yet.
People crucify and rant for no other reason then to create hate, which is what 90% of the Carpetbaggers posting here do
Why does Ms. Titus believes she has more of a chance against Kihuen, in an Hispanic district, than against Heck? She barely lost to Heck and now she thinks the Hispanic voters will vote for her over Kihuen? Really? She seems like a smart woman, I don't get it.
Lawyer...I fully agree with your assessment of the Las Vegas Sun. Only since Brian Greenspun took control. My question is if the Las Vegas Sun is a parasite of the LVRJ, and the LVRJ has earned parasitic title wouldn't the Sun actually be a parasitic parasite.
Vincenta.Montoya.. How unamerican is it to gerrymander a district because of illegal aliens. Then flagrantly flaunt it to American citizens? I know, you are all legal citizens, all 20 million of you.
Michael Green...Are you being sarcastic? What do you expect? This the detention hall of LVRJ comments. If you want the class A stuff you have to subscribe and pay for it. It was best stated by the Road Warrior a couple weeks ago, "This article was so bad I sent it straight to the internet comments, before any real people could read it..."(I paraphrase)