Bridges, 37, a South African national, was put to death by lethal injection, yelling and screaming that he was innocent and that he hated the father of the man he killed.

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, said he wants to eliminate an exception that would have allowed Bridges’ death, even if the bill had already become law.

Senate Bill 254, which is in his Assembly committee, would impose a two-year moratorium on the death penalty except for those who want to be executed.

Anderson said he thinks there’s a good chance his committee will take that exception out of the bill.

“I see no purpose in it,” he said. “That’s another form of suicide or euthanasia. People of the state of Nevada don’t like that.”

Anderson will have a lot to say when the committee considers the bill, which was approved 13-9 by the Senate last week. He was a co-sponsor on the original bill to abolish the death penalty. It was amended to provide for a two-year moratorium to permit a study of the fairness of capital punishment.

The study may lead to a public vote on the death penalty, Anderson said.

His committee approved Assembly Bill 353, which would prohibit the execution of mentally retarded people.

Anderson said he would allow the exception sponsor, Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, a chance to testify and explain the reasoning.

Gov. Kenny Guinn had indicated earlier he would be willing to stay Saturday’s execution if Bridges wanted to continue his appeals. The governor said he did not want an execution carried out when a bill calling for a moratorium might reach his desk a day or so later. But the governor maintained it was up to Bridges to seek to continue his appeals.

But Bridges, while maintaining his innocence, steadfastly refused to ask that the execution be stopped.

The execution was delayed twice while Bridges talked to Michael Pescetta, an assistant federal public defender who was ready to petition for a last- minute stay if the killer asked.

Bridges told Prison Director Jackie Crawford, “You can stop this, Miss Crawford.”

She replied she could not, and it was up to Bridges to make a request. He declined.

Crawford accommodated Bridges’ last wishes, allowing him to wear a dark suit and tie instead of the traditional prison clothing and permitting his minister, identified only as “Father Kelly,” to be with him at the end. Usually the condemned man is alone in the death chamber when the injection is given.

At the end, Kelly was holding Bridges’ hand as Bridges looked at Walter Blatchford, sitting in the front row of the seven witnesses. “I hate you,” Bridges said to the father of Hunter Blatchford, who was shot to death in Las Vegas. Blatchford, the boyfriend of Bridges’ estranged wife, Laurie, was buried in the desert. After the execution, Walter Blatchford told reporters that Bridges was a “twisted man” and that he felt no grief in watching the killer die. “I feel little emotion,” he said. During the process, he had flashbacks of his son, Blatchford said.

Usually those scheduled to die are sedated before entering the death chamber. But Bridges refused, and he appeared calm when he was led in and strapped down.

He asked to see Pescetta. Then he started to yell such things as, “I didn’t kill anybody,” “This is murder” and “You want to kill me like a dog.”

Crawford said Bridges had “high anxiety,” and she quoted his last words as, “You have no justification to kill me. It’s wrong, it’s wrong.”

On Saturday Bridges released a nine-page statement to the media, proclaiming his innocence and saying he got a raw deal during legal proceedings by not being able to hire his own attorney. He complained about the competency of the Clark County public defender’s office, which represented him at trial. He represented himself on appeal.

Anderson said the statements were perplexing.

“I don’t understand his thought process,” Anderson said of Bridges. “He feels he was denied due process, and he doesn’t take advantage of the due process in front of him.”

Bridges’ last meal included aloe juice, crab salad, shrimp, lobster tail, mango, cheesecake and vanilla ice cream. He died at 9:19 p.m., and his body was taken to a local mortuary. The funeral arrangements were kept confidential.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted Friday for Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson’s AB92. The bill would raise more than $51 million a year for drug and alcohol treatment and prevention programs in prisons, hospitals, schools and law enforcement offices.

If it’s passed, AB92 would be the first liquor tax increase in Nevada since 1981.

Anderson, D-Sparks, admits the increase is drastic, but says an excise tax is the best way to pay for Nevada’s alcohol and drug problems. In earlier testimony, state alcohol and drug commissioner Dorothy North said Nevada ranks first in the nation in per capita alcoholism and drug addiction but is 42nd in treatment.

“We’ve come to the point where we’re asking how to pay for all of this,” Anderson said. “The answer is, ‘Why don’t we go to the drinkers.”‘

The new taxes proposed, per gallon:

- $6.32, up from $2.05, for liquor with 22 or more percent alcohol.

- $2.88, up 75 cents, for liquor between 14 and 22 percent alcohol.

- $1.47, up from 40 cents, for liquor between one-half and 14 percent alcohol.

- 62 cents, up from nine cents, for malt liquor brewed in and out of state.

Anderson said that because the tax is measured in gallons, it looks larger than it really is for the average consumer. The tax would end up totalling about 35 cents for a six-pack of beer.

Only Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, voted not to recommend Anderson’s bill as Judiciary passed the bill along to the Taxation Committee.

Carpenter said he wanted to see the results of a planned statewide audit of drug and alcohol treatment programs before spending new tax dollars on them.

“I don’t believe it’s proper to increase taxes at this time,” Carpenter said. “Because we’re going to have an audit of the funds being spent in this area, I want to see that audit before I vote in favor of AB92.”

After the meeting, Anderson was adamant about the fact that the excise tax wouldn’t represent new money so much as money that already comes from other state and local sources.

“We have to look at the unfunded mandates we’ve been passing along to local governments. Hospitals have to give medical treatment to the indigent. Schools have to teach drug and alcohol awareness,” Anderson said. “Now we’re going to step up to the line and say this is how we’ll pay for it.”

Anderson said he hoped hearings before the Taxation Committee would force the Legislature to realize the need for more treatment programs. But he also expressed some doubt that the measure would pass with his tax plans intact.

“There is a real need for this, because we can prove that these programs have a dramatic effect on recidivism rates,” Anderson said. “But the reality of that bill (passing) is slim to none.”

Democratic Rep. George Miller of California said serious questions are raised by Nevada OSHA’s practice of withdrawing fines against contractors for violations that contributed to fatalities.

“The project in Nevada looks a little like a test case here, in the sense that fatalities and injuries have taken place, yet they continue,” Miller said. “The number one tool in the aresenal-fines– continue to get waved. This raiises very, very serious questions about the state enforcement and what federal government has the ability to do under the current law.”

Miller’s comments came before a packed hearing room as the House Education and Labor Committee heard from witnesses about the adequacy of state and federal OSHAs. The hearing will be rebroadcast over the internet later this afternoon.

Among those to testify was former Las Vegas ironworker George Cole, whose brother-in-law Harold “Rusty” Billingsley fell 59-feet to his death at MGM Mirage’s $9.2 billion CityCenter earlier this year. He was one of 12 workers who have died on Strip construction sites over the last 18 months.

Cole told the committee that he and his wife, Billingsley’s sister, Monique, who was seated behind him and occasional wiped away tears, were devastated when OSHA scrapped the $13,000 fine levied on the construction firm at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter project after Billingsley’s death.

Cole also testified that had regulations not been watered down by OSHA to allow the worksite to forego flooring or netting, Billingsley might still be alive.

The committee spent a great deal of time questioning OSHA’s “compliance directive,” which interprets the OSHA standard on flooring.

“Rusty’s death was not his fault,” Cole said.

The lawmakers on the panel were primarily Democrats, as just a handful of Republicans showed up for the hearing. Lawmakers grilled Edwin G. Foulke, Jr, the Labor Department,s assistant secretary in charge of OSHA, who struggled to answer basic questions — at one point saying, “I just follow the law.”

Other witnesses testified about ways to improve construction safety, perhaps through better worker training, greater oversight from cities and counties to supplement OSHA, more federal oversight of the states (including Nevada) that operate their own workplace safety regulatory agencies, and granting OSHA more power, such as the ability to shut down worksites.

Nevada lawmakers have begun to weigh in on the Strip deaths. Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley joined the panel for robust questioning of the Foulke. Republican Rep. Jon Porter stopped by to present Billingsley,s family with a flag that had flown in his honor over the Capitol.

Porter also said he was seeking additional federal funds for OSHA inspectors in Nevada.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, has put forward a bill that would allow $1 billion annually from the fund designated for Yucca Mountain to instead go for developing nuclear recycling and interim waste storage sites run by public-private ventures.

The bill meshes with the interests of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s main lobby, which has been quietly seeking communities that may be interested in hosting an interim waste site.

It also would allow a stable funding stream for nuclear waste projects separate from Congress, where the Nevada delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has successfully slashed Yucca Mountain’s budget in recent years.

Domenici, who is retiring this year, has been a longtime advocate of waste recycling, even as he supports Yucca Mountain. However, skeptics call recycling a boondoggle that will take a generation to develop, reminding that this country halted recycling efforts during the Carter administration.

Domenici issued statement saying his bill “takes the first step toward resolving the question of nuclear waste.”

Domenici’s legislation would create a program for developing up to two recycling projects. Costs would be split 50-50 between the Energy Department and the private sector. The bill would also provide incentive funds for communities that agree to host a storage site. Two storage sites would be sought.

Funds would come from the $20 billion amassed to develop Yucca Mountain from utility rate payers in states reliant on nuclear energy.

Previous industry efforts to build a private nuclear waste storage site on tribal land in Utah stalled.

Domenici’s bill is also sponsored by Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who is taking a lead on nuclear issues in the Senate, as well as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana.

The legislation comes as the Energy Department just last week presented its formal application for Yucca Mountain to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a milestone for the department, yet one that comes so late that Congress is increasingly looking for interim measures.

Under the department’s most optimistic scenario, it believes Yucca Mountain could open by 2017, almost 20 years late.

Reid’s office said the summit speakers will include President Bill Clinton, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and businessman T. Boone Pickens, who is committing to build the largest wind farm in America.

Reid’s office said the summit speakers will include President Bill Clinton, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and businessman T. Boone Pickens, who is committing to build the largest wind farm in America.

The summit also is to bring together major industry leaders, scientists, policy experts and citizens from across the country to

participate in a dialog about our nation’s clean energy future. Reid said in a statement that he believes Nevada can be a world leader in the renewable energy industry because of its rich solar, wind and geothermal resources.

“Being the world leader is more than leading by example by tapping into our state’s vast renewable resources,” Reid said in a statement. “It also means leading the national discussion… As the Majority Leader, clean energy — and Nevada’s central role in this revolution — will be a top legislative priority of mine for the next Congress.”

Reid and UNLV President David Ashley announced that they will partner with the Center for American Progress Action Fund to sponsor the event. Reid made the announcement at a solar array at Nellis Air Force Base.

“This is really important for us to be able to demonstrate why southern Nevada is in a leadership position in this area,” Ashley said in a statement. “We’re delighted that this is an opportunity for us to showcase the talents of so many of our students and faculty.”

Christie Brinkley and Paul McCartney are mentioned. First lady Dawn Gibbons’ filing is called “bizarre” by legal affairs writer Dahlia Lithwick.

According to the campaign, Tolbert has worked on campaigns for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, former Vice President Al Gore and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards and served as Nevada state director for America Coming Together, the big independent expenditure Democratic 2004 get-out-the-vote effort.

Nevada is expected to be a crucial battleground state in November. Sen. John McCain has Rick Gorka in place here already.

Game on.

Both first-time caucusgoers, both supporters of former Sen. John Edwards, McAllister and Quenzel instantly became two of the most popular people at Henderson’s Precinct 1424 caucus when their candidate’s negligible support at their meeting eliminated him from the running.

With the women’s votes up for grabs as the backers of “nonviable” candidates were given a chance to switch to one of the front-runners, supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama swarmed over them, trying to persuade them to join their respective camps.

And just like that, Quenzel and McAllister found themselves starring in a microcosm of the caucus, an electoral method that eschews the privacy of the voting booth for a very public act in which voters must stand up, before their neighbors and the world, and say exactly who they believe should be the next president of the United States.

In a scene fusing the frenetic waving and shouting of the New York Stock Exchange trading floor with the simple passions of the childhood game Red Rover, Red Rover, a half-dozen Clinton and Obama supporters surrounded the women reasoning, imploring, cajoling, even begging them to jump their way as they alternately took their best shots at winning them over.

“Experience can make it happen!” one Clintonite said.

“We need a fresh face!” the Obama camp shot back.

“Hillary’s viable she can win in November.”

“Hillary’s been part of the Establishment. Obama is new. That’s what can win in November.”

“I know you supported another candidate. But now you have to do what your heart and mind tell you.”

“If Edwards were here, he’d tell his supporters to go to Obama.

“I don’t agree with that!”

The only thing that brought the lightning round of point-counterpoint to an end was the precinct chairwoman pounding on a table to signify that it was decision time for Quenzel and McAllister, a 49-year-old stay-at-home mother from Green Valley Ranch.

“Whew! I guess that’s my 15 minutes of fame,” McAllister said.

“I’ve never gotten this kind of attention before,” a smiling Quenzel added.

Although two uncommitted voters seated near Quenzel and McAllister drew loud cheers from the Obama camp when they trooped over to their side of the room, Clinton’s backers won this final skirmish in the lobbying war, persuading both women to join them.

The final tally in Precinct 1424: 57 votes and four delegates for Clinton, 30 votes and two delegates for Obama.

•••

The voters at Henderson’s Multigenerational Center were among about 117,000 Democrats who trekked to schools, churches, casino ballrooms, community centers, shopping centers, convention halls and a myriad other sites Saturday at 529 locations across Nevada not only to stand up for their favored candidate, but also to be part of what arguably was Nevada’s most potent moment ever in presidential politics.

Sun reporters covered 34 precinct caucuses, including all nine at-large sites on the Las Vegas Strip.

Saturday’s turnout, 13 times the 9,000 participants in 2004, reflected the caucus’s newfound clout.

In the past, the state’s caucus has fallen later on the political calendar often after the nomination was sewn up, rendering it little more than a formality.

This year, though, through the influence of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada advanced to third in the Democrats’ nominating process, behind only the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

And when Obama and Clinton split the first two contests, winning Iowa and New Hampshire respectively, Nevada’s caucus had a most compelling story line: It would be the early tie-breaker between the two Democratic front-runners, one that would send the victor on to the next round with the winds of political momentum at his or her back.

“It seems like this is the first year we’ve had a real caucus that meant something,” Quenzel said.

The extraordinary turnout when Reid 18 months ago forecast a figure of 100,000, party leaders feared he had set the bar much too high in a state with historically low voter participation produced its share of glitches and complaints.

As at some other caucus sites, officials at Doris French Elementary School in southeast Las Vegas ran out of presidential preference cards, producing a delay while more were photocopied. Elsewhere, long sign-in lines slowed proceedings, as did voters’ confusion over precisely where to go at locations with multiple caucus sites. And at New York-New York on the Strip, elevator-only access to the caucus room delayed the start.

“I’ve never seen anything this disorganized in my life,” grumbled Lew Gitlin, a former local news anchor in Pahrump. Problems at his caucus notably, fire officials forcing one precinct to move its operations outside because of an overcapacity crowd in a school cafeteria prompted dozens of people to leave, forfeiting their votes.

An atmosphere somewhere between that of a polite pep rally and an impassioned soccer crowd was found at many caucuses, none more so than at the nine at-large sites on Strip established to make it easier for casino, restaurant and hotel employees working Saturday to participate.

At the Luxor’s Egyptian Ballroom, where nearly 400 caucusgoers gathered, there were alternating waves of “O-ba-Ma!” cheers from his red T-shirt-clad supporters and “Hill-la-Ree!” from Clinton backers in their white T-shirts.

The respective camps’ emotions were particularly raw on the Strip, primarily because it brought together thousands of Culinary Union workers badly split over their union leadership’s endorsement of Obama.

“I’m appalled that they went ahead and endorsed someone without asking me first,” said Christine Hill-Ackerman, a 45-year-old cafe food server at the Bellagio.

Similarly, Belem Perez, a maid at Caesars Palace, backed Clinton despite her union’s endorsement and was incensed Saturday when a union member told her to remove her union pin if she was not going to vote for Obama.

“‘Because the union supports him’ is not a good enough reason,” she said.

Those passions occasionally boiled over, typified by a tense moment at Caesars when an Obama supporter angrily swatted a Clinton sign out of someone’s hand and grabbed a Clinton T-shirt that was being waved to throw it to the ground.

“Traitors!” Obama’s Culinary supporters screamed at the Clinton backers across the room.

Confrontations, though, were the exception Saturday, as most caucus sites saw the various candidates’ backers articulate the reasons behind their support one last time in an attempt to sway a few voters.

“In every relationship, someone always comes with baggage,” 45-year-old professional magician Scott Dorfman, an Obama supporter, said just before the start of a caucus in the auditorium at Sheila Tarr Elementary School in Summerlin. “Hillary needs three porters. Obama is basically a carry-on.”

Native Las Vegan Douglas Tanner said Obama’s promise of a dramatic change in Washington drew him to the Illinois senator.

“He really sounds like someone who would be different,” the 22-year-old said at his caucus in the gymnasium at Doolittle Community Center on Las Vegas’ west side. “Hillary sounds like she says the same thing over and over and over.”

Clinton’s backers clearly disagreed.

At North Las Vegas’ Rancho High School, Maria Arqueta, a 46-year-old recently laid-off restaurant worker and former Culinary worker, said she sided with Clinton primarily because she hopes a Hillary Clinton administration could restore the upbeat economy of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Echoing the same theme, Planet Hollywood porter Javier Martinez said: “When her husband was in office, things were good for us.”

At the Searchlight Community Center, 81-year-old Berkley Clements said he believes Clinton, not Obama, offers the greater opportunity for change in Washington.

“We’ve tried everything else,” he said. “Let’s try a woman president.”

Clinton’s edge in experience a liability that Obama has tried to offset with his theme of change also figured prominently in many caucusgoers’ decision to side with Clinton.

McAllister, the erstwhile Edwards backer who ended up backing Clinton at the Henderson caucus, said that was the pivotal factor in her decision.

“I’m afraid of his inexperience,” she said of Obama. “Frankly, I wanted to hear something from the Obama campaign that could have pulled me in their direction. But I didn’t get it. It was always just, ‘Change, change, change.’ That just leaves you wondering, what exactly does that mean?”

McAllister, distressed by what she sees as the broadcast media’s casting of Edwards as an also-ran so early in the primary season, had shown up at the caucus reconciled to the likely necessity of having to throw her support to either Obama or Clinton, given the slim chance that Edwards would gain enough votes to qualify for the second round of caucus activity.

For many backers of candidates other than Clinton or Obama, however, the caucus’ demand for a rapid switch of allegiance was a painful one.

“It was the longest 4 feet of my life,” Art Jackson, the lone supporter of Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, said of his walk to join the Obama camp in Summerlin.

Edwards supporter Kevin Bibby, a 43-year-old artist, took a politically pragmatic attitude toward his move to the Clinton camp at a caucus at Las Vegas’ Halle Hewetson Elementary School.

“Clinton was my backup plan,” he said.

Just as McAllister and Quenzel experienced in Henderson, undecided voters or those initially committed to another candidate who fell short of the 15 percent vote threshold necessary to compete for individual caucus sites’ delegates also found themselves attracting feverish lobbying from the major candidates’ camps.

At Caesars, for example, Melissa Thomas, a 30-year-old wedding services worker, at one point was surrounded by five Obama supporters and four Clinton partisans. As inducements, they offered her campaign paraphernalia a red Obama shirt, a green Clinton megaphone campaign brochures and even newspaper clippings. In the end, she sided with Clinton.

If the six-figure statewide turnout was not proof enough of the interest and commitment generated by Saturday’s caucus, the solid Democratic turnout in the remote Republican mining community of Elko in Northern Nevada on a day when the temperature was an exceptionally brisk 7 degrees further proved the point.

One elderly woman, a Clinton supporter, fell on ice in the Elko convention center parking lot but was still determined to caucus, initially refusing to budge even as EMTs urged her to go to a hospital.

Finally, a Clinton volunteer persuaded her to seek treatment, saying: “Your health is more important than the caucus.”

Saturday left no doubt, however, that Nevada’s Democratic presidential caucus was very healthy, indeed.

Sun reporters Liz Benston, Joe Brown, Brendan Buhler, J. Patrick Coolican, Tony Cook, Brian Eckhouse, Jeff German, Abigail Goldman, Charlotte Hsu, Steve Kanigher, Ron Kantowski, Nicole Lucht, Mary Manning, Michael J. Mishak, Kristen Peterson, Tim Pratt, Emily Richmond, Cy Ryan, Joe Schoenmann, David Schwartz, Phoebe Sweet, Stephanie Tavares, Mike Trask, Rick Velotta and Brian Wargo contributed to this report.

Among the changes: More than 50,000 low-paid workers in Nevada are going to get a raise, and delinquent taxpayers will be able to settle up with the state without paying penalty and interest.

There are new laws on requirements for getting a mortgage broker license, on permitting foster children to go to school out of their zones and on tightening registration rules on sex offenders.

A state budget of an estimated $3.5 billion also goes into effect. It carries a 4 percent pay raise for the 16,000 state workers.

Here is a look at some of the new laws, which took effect Tuesday:

• Minimum wage — A constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2004 and 2006 requires annual raises for minimum-wage workers. The wage for workers who are not covered by company health insurance goes from $6.33 to $6.85 an hour. For those who have health insurance, pay goes from $5.30 to $5.85 an hour.

State Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek said the minimum wage is adjusted annually based on the cost of living, but it can’t go up more than 3 percent. The minimum wage, he said, is paid in a variety of occupations.

For instance, it may be paid to waiters and waitresses or casino dealers who make money from tips. Or it may be paid to salespeople who earn most of their income from commissions.

• Tax amnesty — In an effort to generate more tax revenue for the state in this difficult time, Gov. Jim Gibbons has called for a tax amnesty program. Right now about $76 million is owed in sales and use taxes, modified business taxes and business license fees.

Those who pay their back taxes will escape the penalty and interest due in the program, which runs through Sept. 30.

A similar amnesty in 2002 brought in more than $7.3 million from tardy taxpayers.

• Electronic filing — Businesses that make payments in excess of $10,000 to the state Taxation Department must do it electronically. Department Director Dino DiCianno said the system is being upgraded. But companies that can’t connect with the state may continue to file their returns the normal way.

• Budget — The state’s $3.5 billion budget, shaved by Gibbons and legislators, provides money to public schools. But there are increases. For instance, the average state basic support per student will go from $5,122 to $5,323. In Clark County, it will increase from $4,891 to $5,051.

In addition to the pay raise for state workers, the state’s contribution to the health insurance plan rises from $557 to $626 a month, and the subsidy for state retirees goes from $365 to $410.

• Mileage — The mileage rate paid to witnesses who appear for court proceedings is increased to coincide with the federal government’s standard, which is 58.5 cents per mile. The rate for witnesses in Nevada had been 19 cents per mile since 1981.

• Special property tax — Clark and Washoe counties will start transferring part of the proceeds from the special 5 cent property tax to the state. The percentage going to the state increases each year until it reaches 60 percent in 2012. Twelve percent of the state’s share will go to the Transportation Department for projects in Clark and Washoe counties, said Rudy Malfabon, deputy state transportation director.

• Mortgage brokers — Those who want a license as a mortgage broker will be required to take 30 hours of education or pass an examination. Regulations on content of the examination are being written, so those who want a license immediately will have to complete the 30 hours of education.

• Foster children — Foster children will have school choice. Their guardians may enroll them in a public school outside the attendance zones where they live.

• Cancer grant — A new law provides a $2.5 million grant to the Nevada Cancer Institute.

• Offenders — One new law doesn’t go into effect this week because it’s being challenged in court. It toughens the law on registration of sex offenders and offenders against children. It was adopted to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 and requires certain ex-offenders to check in more often with authorities.

Two suits have been filed challenging the new law, which changes the way states classify sex offenders. On Monday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that sides with the American Civil Liberties Union and blocks this law for now.

The findings indicate that gas prices are having a greater impact on tourism than can be gleaned from statistics generated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. They compile key figures such as the number of visitors who drive or fly to Las Vegas, hotel occupancy and room rates, but don’t try to quantify how gas prices affect tourism.

The number of incoming vehicles on Interstate 15 counted by the Nevada Transportation Department at the Southern California border — a figure that inevitably includes locals and other drivers who aren’t necessarily Las Vegas tourists — is down 5 percent from January through April compared with the same period in 2007.

The visitors authority says tourist traffic from January through April was flat compared with the same period last year, although gaming revenue on the Strip was down 3 percent.

The new poll was conducted last month by Jim Medick of Precision Opinion, which conducts proprietary marketing research for political campaigns as well as for corporate clients, including casinos and retailers.

Medick said he wasn’t attempting to quantify the drop in tourism, but rather to identify why some gamblers have stopped coming and at what point they are priced out of Vegas because of gas prices.

The survey follows one he conducted in 2005 gauging the response of Southern California gamblers to gas prices that had risen to more than $3 a gallon at the time.

About 48 percent of the polled Southern California gamblers in 2005 said gas prices had affected their decision to drive to Las Vegas casinos, but the survey didn’t ask motorists to explain what the impact was.

Motorists in the 2005 and 2008 surveys were asked how expensive gas would have to be before they would stop driving to Las Vegas. On average, the motorists in 2005 said they would stop driving to Las Vegas when gas hit $3.51 a gallon. Last month, the average of responses was $5.73. Medick attributed the steep price estimate to responses from hard-core gamblers who said they would not be thwarted, even if gas were as high as $10 a gallon. Also, he noted that motorists have recently broken the psychological barrier of paying more than $4 a gallon for gas — a price that nobody would have believed possible years ago.

Medick said he focused on Southern Californians because it is a “core audience” and could help explain in more detail the forces driving the tourism slowdown in Las Vegas.

Researchers used a random digit dialing method to call thousands of people to accumulate a sample of 599 Southern California gamblers who said they had driven to Las Vegas at some point in the past three years. The survey has a 95 percent level of confidence and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The research director of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Kevin Bagger, cautioned that Medick’s poll painted an incomplete picture of how the economy is affecting gamblers’ decisions to come to Las Vegas.

The effect of high gas prices can be offset by other factors — including consumers who are lured by low room rates and other special offers, Bagger said.

“Volume is down, though not dramatically, and we’re seeing that people are spending less. But you can change behavior to save money. Consumers are responding to these offers,” Bagger said.

The purest measure of visitor traffic is hotel occupancy, he said. The visitors authority’s monthly visitor traffic counts are extrapolated from occupancy rates rather than from car or plane traffic, which may not include tourist traffic, he said.

Las Vegas hotel occupancy is down 2 percent from last year to 89 percent from January through April, though the region has about 3,500 more rooms to fill this year than last, according to the visitors authority.

Factoring in those extra rooms, the number of room nights occupied across Las Vegas is flat with last year through April, with rooms occupied by tourists up 7 percent and rooms occupied by conventiongoers down 10 percent — a significant slowdown, yet hardly a doom and gloom scenario, tourism officials say.

Medick said hotel operators should heed the results of his poll.

“What this says is that people’s overall budgets have been so dinged that they just can’t afford to come to Las Vegas,” he said. “This doesn’t bode well” for the Strip, he said.

In the 2005 poll, 47 percent of Southern Californians who visit Las Vegas casinos said they would consider other ways of getting here, mostly by air but some by bus. By comparison, only 10 percent of gamblers in the June poll said they would turn to alternative modes of transportation if gas prices got too high. And this time, more said they’d consider bus travel than flying.

“This would be a good time for casino operators to look into more bus charters,” he added.

Las Vegas casinos largely abandoned bus charters several years ago because gamblers were coming without the enticement of cheap travel. Charter buses, with fares subsidized by casino operators, remain a common practice in Atlantic City, a daytrippers market that’s only two hours from New York and Philadelphia.

MGM Mirage, the Strip’s largest casino operator, says Southern Californians are still coming in large numbers, especially since the company and others began offering summer bargains.

“We haven’t seen the direct drop-off in business that is indicated by the survey, but we do have some softness because people who are traveling to Vegas are much more conscientious about their spending and are more budgeted than they have been in the past,” spokeswoman Yvette Monet said.

Discount charter flight operators began scaling back their flights to Las Vegas years ago because they couldn’t effectively compete with regularly scheduled air service, which rose significantly over the years, said Jeff Eisenhart, vice president of leisure sales and marketing at Mirage.

“If the charter company can make the finances work and bring the planes out here, it would always be something we would welcome. But that’s up to the tour operator. We just supply the (rooms).”