Ron Paul rally in Las Vegas 11/19/07

Posted 11/19/07 (By Travis)

11/19/07 Neoperspectives.com

Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul rocked Las Vegas today drawing a raucous crowd of 1200-1500 people into UNLV's Ham Hall.

The days events began with a fundraising luncheon, attended by roughly 70 people. With a $1000 dollar recommended donation and $500 minimum donation the event likely raised in excess of $35,000 for Paul's campaign.

Dr Paul spoke at both the luncheon (15 minutes) and UNLV rally (45min-1hr) and signed autographs, posed for pictures, and mingled with the crowd at both events.

His speeches touched on liberty, freedom, and personal responsibility. Some highlights (paraphrasing):

"I don't pretend to know answers. I don't want to run the world, I don't want to run the economy, and I don't want to run your lives."

"The good thing about these speeches is that I don't say things to different groups depending on where I go like some other candidates, I never have to think about where I am or who the audience is."

However, he did tailor one specific for Nevada. At UNLV he brought up his vote on Yucca mountain, one of only 3 congressmen (the other two from NV) he said, to vote against the nuclear waste being stored here because (paraphrasing), "I don't feel people in other states should be able to vote problems onto other states. People in a given state should decide what they want in their state".

He also mentioned the money bombs, both past (Nov 5th) and future (Dec 16th), and how the press the Nov 5th bomb generated was worth millions.

Paul got his biggest cheers, standing ovations, plus plenty of hooting and hollering for his "the government should have no claim on your life, liberty, or property, which includes your income," "abolish the IRS", statement, as well as his "I'd just like to get the US out of the UN" quip.

More pictures of rally found here.

More pictures of luncheon found here.

We had 3 out of 4 major Las Vegas news media channels attend the rally, you can see their live coverage of the events here:

http://ktnv.com/ estimated approximately 2,000 attendees
http://kvbc.com/ estimated approximately 1,300 attendees

My estimate of 1300-1500 was arrived at by the fact that Artemus Hamm Hall seats approximately 1800, and is divided into a top and bottom section. The top section was not opened for our event, but only holds 1/4th to 1/5th the total number in the bottom segment, which was almost entirely filled.

In their coverage, the media also mentioned the many signs around town and his plan to eliminate the 'tax on tips' (radio ads now playing in NV emphasize the Paul 'no tax on tips' plan).

In contrast, Romney drew approximately 200 attendees to his event when he was here on Saturday. Today was a Monday with the rally at 3pm and also despite the Ron Paul campaign's unintentional lesson on the merits of central economic planning via the printing of two full page ads in the Las Vegas Review Journal with the wrong times for the rallies.

Also of note, Hans Gullickson, hired by the Republican party of NV to run the primary Republican caucuses gave a seminar to Ron Paul supporters the previous day (Sun 11/17), which was attended by over 100 people. This was more than who showed for the entire Republican party seminar weeks earlier.

Although Ron Paul is only currently polling at 8% in Nevada (up from 1% just a few months ago), the Ron Paul supporters here in Las Vegas are enthusiastic, growing, motivated, and determined to win NV. I think we will.

Paul is headed to Pahrump tonight and to Reno tomorrow for more fundraisers, rallies, and interviews.

My personnel highlight of the day was meeting Ron Paul (for the second time). I only had a second to say, "Abolish the FDA!" and he replied, "There ya go." I'll take that as an affirmative. :)

Update:

Another Las Vegas meetup member wrote on Ron Paul forums:

    It was simply amazing! Prior to the rally, there was a fundraiser with Ron Paul at $500 - $1,000 a plate. I didn't bother counting because I was too distracted by all the fancy people, and the good food. I estimate anywhere between 50-80 people showed up for that, but don't quote me on that.

    The rally took place at an auditorium that seats approximately 1,800 people. It was close to capacity. The estimates from the news channels ranged between 1,300 to 2,000 people. For comparison, Romney drew approximately 200 attendees to his event when he was here on Saturday.

    The audience was extremely loud. My ears are still ringing. The intensity matched that of the SLC rally; the crowd even went nuts during the video presentation prior to Ron Paul's speech. We passed out free yard signs prior to the event, so the footage will show a sea of Ron Paul signs.

    Tucker Carlson was there, I presume to interview Ron Paul, but it just looked like he was hanging out. He seemed to really enjoy being there with all the volunteers and fans of Ron Paul. He interviewed and chatted with the volunteers for 45 minutes. Tucker was very friendly, but asked a ton of tough questions that covered every conceivable issue relating to Ron Paul. The 45 minute chat session with Tucker Carlson was RECORDED, and he gave us permission to release it on youtube or google video.

    We recruited 90 Ron Paul supporters to run as precinct delegates, and registered 80 Republicans. We sold a ton of shirts, and took in a ton of campaign contributions for the campaign.

    We had about 9-10 prosumer cameras there. 3 television stations covered the event. Also, one of the volunteers happened to own a 20 foot boom apparatus that flew around the stage. We probably got the best campaign footage to date, of the most boisterous campaign event.

    I will post pictures, videos, and other comments later. Right now, I'm exhausted, and I need to sleep.

RON PAUL 2008!

Update 2, from a Las Vegas meetup member in Pahrump:

The Pahrump rally a great success!!! The room was absolutely packed and it was SRO. There was no video introduction at this rally and there were a few differences in the speech. For example, he did not mention the war on drugs in Pahrump and he emphasized private property and 2nd amendment. He also emphasized how the message of freedom is resonating with young people and talked about the enthusiasm at the UNLV rally!!! (I really think we made an impression on him.) He also said that we the supporters excite him and how the campaign has been influenced by the internet. I liked his joke about how troops had been in Korea since he was in high school and it was about time they got out!!! He spoke for about 40 minutes in Pahrump too.

The crowd demographic was different from the UNLV rally. People were older, but RP's message does not discriminate, so that didn't surprise me one bit! ;)

Update 3, an estimate has been thrown out that some 600 people attended the Pahrump rally:

We counted two sections of 160 seats each. All filled. So 320 there.
All the sidelines were filled with standing room only, so maybe another 100 or so.

The back of the room, they were 10 or so deep, standing in a thirty foot wide room, so another couple hundred?

Hard to tell, just a guestimate, but it was great!

News articles:

Las Vegas crowd roars for Ron Paul
11/20/07 RJ

YouTubes of speech:
part 1..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xumImZvNMEs
part 2..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II-xlEQLHug
part 3..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUOZXZrNt_E
part 4..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvROUefJgYg