Added Saturday Evening Nevada Caucus Will Accommodate Sabbath Observing Jews

Nevada's Republican Party Caucuses to choose delegates to the presidential nominating convention are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 4. AP reported this week that Clark County (Las Vegas area) officials have added a special 7:00 p.m. evening caucus to accommodate Jewish voters who observe the Sabbath. The decision came after billionaire casino owner, Sheldon Adelson, who is active in Jewish causes, complained about the Sabbath conflict.  Adelson and his wife Miriam, majority owners of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., have contributed $10 million to Winning Our Future, a super-PAC that supports Newt Gingrich.  (Bloomberg News). The special evening caucus will be held at the Adelson Educational Campus, a Jewish school founded by the Adelsons. A similar Saturday conflict occurred in 2008, but instead of holding evening caucuses the Nevada Democratic Party placed caucus sites near religious neighborhoods and synagogues so people could walk, and precinct captains were educated to write down information on behalf of observant Jews instead of asking them to sign-in and write themselves. The Republicans apparently also attempted to educate precinct captains on the issue when they became aware of it in 2008. (See prior posting).