Hillary, Edwards Hire Campaign Staff in Nevada

It's interesting to see how the presidential candidates assemble their Nevada staff, especially who they pick. Obama picked Alyson Schwartz and David Cohen, both with Nevada experience, Richardson's campaign team also has Nevada experience:

Richardson was the first to hire staff in Nevada. His Nevada campaign chairman is Reynaldo Martinez, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Richardson also has a Nevada communications director, Josh McNeil, and has field organizers for Northern Nevada, Southern Nevada and rural Nevada - Teresa Navarro, Javier Trujillo and Michael Tassone, respectively.

While Hillary's Nevada campaign manager Robby Mook is from outside the state her recent hirings are all from inside the state:

The Northern Nevada political director, Pam DuPre, is a former executive director of the Washoe County Democratic Party.

Alisa Naze, the Southern Nevada political director, previously was the finance coordinator for the failed gubernatorial campaign of Democratic nominee Dina Titus.

The communications director is another former Titus staffer, Hilarie Grey, who was head of communications for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before joining Titus' campaign last year.

Deputy Field Director Brian DiMarzio worked as the Nevada Democratic Party's canvass director during last year's election and previously worked for the AFL-CIO union in Nevada.

So, it seems somewhat peculiar that Edwards' team is completely from out-of-state:

The Edwards campaign said Bill Hyers will lead operations in Nevada as state director. Hyers worked on the former North Carolina senator's 2004 presidential campaign in Iowa. He recently was a campaign manager for Kristen Gillibrand's successful congressional campaign in New York.

Edwards' Nevada political director, Roberto Rodriguez, was the state director for the California Voter Registration Project in 2004 and the managing director for LLAMAME, an organization that tailors communications in Spanish and English, the campaign said.

Preston Elliot, a former field staffer on Rep. Dick Gephardt's 2004 campaign in Iowa, will be Edwards' Nevada field director. Oscar Lopez, a regional field director for Patricia Madrid's 2006 congressional race in New Mexico, will act as Nevada trip director. Kelly Harlow, who worked on Edwards' 2004 bid in Iowa, will act as Nevada regional field director.

I guess, we'll have to wait and see whether or not that was a smart move.

On an editorial note: Molly Ball contradicts herself in her article on the Hillary hirings when stating that she has "the largest campaign staff in the state so far". At my count Hillary's has now a paid staff of five (Molly surely wasn't counting Rory Reid and Frankie Sue Del Papa?) and Richardson also has a paid staff of five. I'm not counting Edwards' staff as that news must have come after Molly wrote her article. One would hope that reporters would still be able to count to five...