LAS VEGAS — Sonny Brown, who sells Hawaiian-style clothing, accessories and li hing mui candies, was already leaning toward U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Brown agrees with the Hawai'i-born candidate's message of change and believes he is more in touch with issues such as the economy and healthcare than U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee. His daughter introduced Obama at a campaign event earlier this year.

But Brown, who moved here from Kalihi-Palama 12 years ago, said it also helps that Obama volunteers from Hawai'i were here over the weekend to talk story and do outreach at the Islands of the Pacific festival.

"It does have some impact on my decision," said Brown, who had a booth at the festival.

With Obama favored to take Hawai'i in November, the local Obama and McCain campaigns have directed attention toward Nevada, a battleground state with deep cultural and tourism connections to the Islands.

Local Obama volunteers are making as many as 1,000 telephone calls a day to Nevada voters and more than a dozen volunteers have made trips here to connect with Hawai'i transplants and Asians and Pacific Islanders. U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, and U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, have made campaign appearances.

Local McCain volunteers started calling Nevada voters last week and Gov. Linda Lingle is expected to campaign here on Wednesday before going to Ohio.

A Las Vegas Review-Journal poll released yesterday showed Obama ahead of McCain 47 percent to 45 percent, which is within the poll's 4 percent margin of error.

McCain led Obama 46 percent to 39 percent in an August poll for the newspaper, and political analysts link McCain's slide to the downturn in the economy, the most important issue for Nevada voters.

ON THE FENCE

Nevada only has five electoral votes — one more than Hawai'i's four — but as a Republican state that may flip to the Democrats, it has become among the most competitive in the West.

President Bush won here in 2000 and 2004 and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beat Obama in the Democratic caucuses in January.

"It could boil down to Nevada," said Andy Winer, Obama's Hawai'i state director.

Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up about 6.5 percent of Nevada's population, or about 160,000 people. There is a substantial Island cultural presence because of the many Hawai'i transplants who moved here for jobs and the Hawai'i residents who come here regularly to gamble and shop.

Local Obama volunteers calling Nevada have mostly been identifying potential Obama voters. In the coming days, volunteers will target likely voters, particularly Hawai'i transplants and Asians and Pacific Islanders. Local volunteers may also do specific outreach here with Filipino voters.

Separately, local labor interests are contacting their counterparts in Nevada and some Kamehameha Schools alumni are reaching out to those here with Kamehameha ties.

Hawaiians for Obama, a group of activists from Hawai'i and the Mainland, has been circulating a position paper critical of McCain. The paper notes that McCain voted against the 1993 resolution apologizing for the U.S. role in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, opposes a Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill, and could appoint federal judges who might be unsympathetic to Hawaiian rights and the Hawaiian preference in admissions to Kamehameha Schools.

"We felt like a lot of people here in Nevada may feel out of touch," said Esther Kia'aina, a former staffer for former Congressman Ed Case and Akaka, who was waving Obama signs yesterday outside Chinatown Plaza.

"We're trying to bring it home to them. One of the most important issues facing our community, quite frankly, may be the appointment of judges and the appointment of the U.S. solicitor."

BUILDING CONNECTIONS

Rick Gorka, the western regional spokesman for the McCain campaign, said McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have records of reform and independence that resonate with Nevada voters.

Gorka also said that McCain's pro-growth and tax-relief proposals are closer to the views of Nevada voters than Obama's. "It's going to be very close and we're campaigning very hard," he said.

Voters often form their impressions of candidates from major speeches, national political conventions, debates, television advertising and the news media, but retail politics — even in the Internet age — can help make a difference in battleground states.

Personal outreach by activists, and appearances by high-profile surrogates such as Lingle, can help build connections and pump up volunteers.

"If they can influence one vote, we want them here," Gorka said of Lingle and other surrogates.

Jerry Coffee, a retired Navy captain who was a prisoner of war with McCain in Vietnam, has been on an East Coast swing for McCain but recognizes the importance of Nevada.

Coffee, who is leading McCain's Hawai'i campaign, said he believes there is a lot of under-the-surface support for McCain in Hawai'i but that it is obvious Nevada is more competitive.

"We're trying to look at it as realistically as possible," he said.

Erik McCall, a communications field technician who lives here and is from Upcountry Maui, said Obama's Hawai'i background could help him with Nevada voters in a close race.

"Vegas has embraced the Islands. We have a different mentality, more friendly, more tolerant of things," McCall said. "It's really that wave coming, that island spirit."