LAS VEGAS-More than a dozen Republican candidates for office were in northwest Las Vegas last night, meeting and greeting voters at an event sponsored by the Spring Mountain Republican Women. Although it was a windy evening, more than a hundred voters and activists attended the event, picking up "Bob Beers for Senate" t-shirts and learning which candidates are worth contributing to.

"Pretty darn good turnout," said Beers, who recruited several volunteers at the event. Beers is being challenged this year by Democrat Allison Copening in his Senate District 6, which is expected to be one of the closest contested of the season.

Eight assembly candidates, one of them challenging a Republican incumbent, two family court judicial candidates, two district court judicial candidates, one Supreme Court candidate, one Clark County Commission candidate and one congressional candidate rounded out the field at the event.

Sean Fellows, who is considered one of the top stars of the Republican effort to prevent a Democratic veto-proof majority in the assembly, attended, even though the event was miles outside of his Henderson district.

"This is fantastic to see this kind of support for all the candidates, and it's just the energy. It's nice to see," said Fellows.

"The biggest thing I've learned in the last nine months I've been campaigning is that it all comes down to relationships. As I jokingly tell people, you may not be able to vote for me, but you can vote by checkbook."

Fellows filed his candidacy for Assembly District 29 last week and simultaneously announced he had raised more than $100,000 for his race.

Several of the Republican candidates will face long odds to unseat incumbents in districts where registration numbers strongly favor Democrats, like Tim Williams challenging Assemblyman Mark Manendo in Assembly District 18, Jim Jonas challenging Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley in Assembly Distict 8 and Lisa Marie Johnson challenging Assemblyman Harvey Munford in Assembly District 6. Last night's event, however, was a time for optimism for all involved.

"Ball games are won in the fourth quarter, aren't they?" asked Ron Garrett, chairman and CEO of Garrett Creative Group who is challenging Assemblyman Marcus Conklin in Assembly District 37. "I'm sure I'm going to be fighting a strong, hard battle."

"[Buckley] does have a lot of name recognition, but that's all she counts on," said Jonas. "There's not much focus on the district specifically, so we're going to completely focus on the district."