Barack Obama

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A pro-union political action group is staging a series of public events around Nevada attacking U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)  over the next several days, hitting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on foreclosers, Yucca Mountain, and his support for Gov. Jim Gibbons (R).

The "Change to Win" campaign, a joint effort from seven major unions, will be holding protests in Reno, Carson City, Las Vegas and Pahrump between Monday and Thursday, according to a release issued by the group.

The Nevada events will kick off a series of similar rallies in battleground states across the country.

The Reno Gazette Journal is reporting that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama will appear in Reno on Sunday.

Obama, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, is scheduled to appear at a town hall meeting in front of a few hundred area residents with tickets to the event.

The appearance is Obama's first to northern Nevada since U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) conceded the nomination, the paper reports. Clinton appeared last weekend in Henderson on Obama's behalf.

A recent poll shows Obama trailing presumptive Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by a small margin in the Silver State.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain is carrying a small lead in Nevada over his Democratic rival Barack Obama, a new poll from Rasmussen finds.

Forty-five percent of the 700 likely voters polled support McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, with 42 percent saying they back Obama, the junior senator from Illinois. McCain's lead is within the polls 4.5-percentage point margin of error.

The presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will release a new ad in Nevada Thursday attacking his Republican opponent in the race for the presidency, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on a range of issues.

The ad attacks McCain on his support for the Iraq war, his opposition to new taxes on oil revenues and a voting record that the ad says supports President Bush's policies "95 percent of the time."

It begins playing in Nevada along with 15 other contested states on Thursday. Watch the video below. 

RNC Deputy Chair Frank DonatelliAs far as the RNC's Frank Donatelli is concerned, the votes are already there for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain to take Nevada in November. Now, he said, it's up to the GOP to go out and take them.

Donatelli -- the deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee -- visited the Silver State Monday. He said McCain holds a substantive policy advantage over his presumptive Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), on a number of issues Nevadans care about.

"As far as the message war, we think Sen. McCain has the advantage on taxes, increasing production of domestic energy sources, and being ready as commander-in-chief from day one," Donatelli told PolitickerNV.com.

Showing what you can do when you raise money, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has announced a sizeable expansion of his field team. This quote sums up the gravity of the situation for U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ):

By the end of August, the campaign expects to have 20 field offices and 75 paid staff members statewide, a third of whom would be from the caucus operation. Those workers will be overseen by six regional field directors, with Chicago headquarters keeping a close eye on all of it.

The ad from the Obama camp hitting U.S. Senator John McCain on his support of Yucca Mountain has received national press coverage.

CBSnews.com has coverage of McCain's stance of storing something in Nevada that he doesn't even want trucked through his home state of Arizona. There's even a YouTube link.

Speaking at a Henderson High School Friday, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), a one-time primary rival to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-Ill.), told Nevada Democrats to throw their support behind Obama.

During a rally to kick-off a weekend voter registration drive, Clinton told the crowd at Green Valley High School that Obama's interests and positions were very much the same as hers.

"We may have started on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now," Clinton said. "Sen. Obama needs all of us."

Clinton took the Nevada caucus from Obama in January, but has since become a strong supporter of the Illinois U.S. senator since conceding the nomination in May. Obama and U.S. Sen. John McCain -- the presumptive Republican nominee -- are locked in a tight battle for the Silver State, which has traditionally gone to the GOP.