Monday, September 12, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Nevada voters can stay focused on state races

U.S. Senate, House seats look secure for incumbents, while elections to fill state and legislative jobs and decide ballot issues demand attention

Attorney Stan Hunterton announced last week he wasn't going to challenge Rep. Jon Porter, a Republican in his second term. Hunterton said he may enter politics in the future. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Rep. Shelley Berkley said she missed a vote to appropriate money for Hurricane Katrina because she was recovering from surgery. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO State Sen. Steven Horsford, above, and Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly, below, drove to coastal Mississippi to see how they could help victims of Hurricane Katrina. It wasn't until they returned from helping in shelters that anyone knew they had gone. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTOS

Voters will have plenty on their plates next year with statewide races for Nevada's top six jobs and the usual host of legislative campaigns and ballot issues.

With all politics being local, the federal races are gearing up to be a big snooze for Southern Nevadans.

To date, there's not a whisper of competition for U.S. Sen. John Ensign's seat; and in the House there's no Republican willing to take on Shelley Berkley or a Democrat vying for Jon Porter's seat.

Last week, Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton announced he wasn't going to challenge Porter, a Republican in his second term.

"I have obligations to my clients which preceded this opportunity, and I feel bound to meet those obligations," Hunterton said, referring to the 11 trials he has scheduled between now and November of next year.

Hunterton said he may enter politics in the future, "but this is just not the right time."

Democrats already have been rejected by weatherman Nate Tannenbaum, and who knows which other television personalities Sen. Harry Reid has tapped this time.

You'd think the 3rd Congressional District could be competitive. Democrats have about 950 more registered voters; and Porter, a sophomore, still hasn't become an entrenched incumbent.

If the dearth of Democratic opponents continues, Porter will be even stronger.

That's what's happened to Berkley in the 1st Congressional District. Republicans didn't find a known candidate to run against her last year, and there isn't a peep of opposition as she gears up to run for a fifth term next year.

When she first ran in 1998, she won with just 49 percent of the vote. In 2000, she got 52 percent. She beat Lynette Boggs McDonald by 11 percentage points in 2002 and crushed the Republican nominee by 35 points last year.

The 2nd Congressional District has been out of reach for Democrats for years, but at least Northern Nevada voters (and the 24,000 in Clark County in that district) will have a Republican primary to entertain them.

Healthy appearance

The health of Nevada's congressional delegation came into question recently when Reid's staff announced he had suffered a mild stroke.

But it took a missing vote in Congress to find out about Berkley's "health."

Stephens Media Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault talked to Berkley about why she missed a vote to appropriate money for Hurricane Katrina.

Berkley said she needed additional time to recover from Aug. 15 plastic surgery on her neck. "I am black and blue turning to yellow and green, which are certainly not my colors."

Thousands of Katrina's female survivors were not worried about their outward appearance. Many are graciously accepting oversized T-shirts at shelters -- no matter what the colors.

Berkley also said that because the Katrina vote passed by such a wide margin, her vote wasn't going to change anything.

It didn't take long for the National Republican Congressional Committee to take on Berkley's comments. In an interview, NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said: "It's not every day a member admits their ineffectiveness."

Berkley's chief of staff, Richard Urey, said Berkley had expected to be back in Washington for Congress' first week after the August recess, but she suffered painful complications from her surgery and was under doctor's orders to rest.

"I can understand why Mr. Forti is a bit angry today," Urey said Friday as news came that Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown was pulled back to Washington from working hurricane relief.

"They just had to surgically remove their own Republican official for his ineffectiveness," Urey said. "They've got to cut very deep, well beyond cosmetic surgery, to get over his ineffectiveness."

Quietly offering help

Quietly and without press releases, state Sen. Steven Horsford and Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly drove to coastal Mississippi to see how they could help.

Both had been contacted by news media before their departure regarding a community forum they were hoping to organize in Las Vegas for people seeking loved ones displaced by the catastrophe. It wasn't until they returned from helping in shelters that anyone knew they had gone.

Neither outwardly sought attention for their efforts, which only became public in the context of media reporting about their community forum. Neither are running for anything these days except the common good.

A couple of candidates for office took a different approach.

Former Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, a Republican who is planning to run for her husband's congressional seat, sent a press release announcing she would travel with a volunteer group to take supplies to evacuees in Houston.

The press release mentions her exploratory committee and her husband, Jim, who is running for governor. It also mentions that she will "suspend her campaign activities until her return."

"I am sure that the events that I had planned to attend can be rescheduled to a later date," Gibbons said in the statement.

Maybe those sheltered in Houston will be a lesson in lives rescheduled.

State Sen. Dina Titus added her own dubious Katrina message to the mix last week. In a message to supporters, Titus thanked Nevadans for their generosity and wrote: "The work goes on: supporters of my campaign in northern Nevada will be passing the hat for relief victims at a house event planned for my campaign this week."

In case you missed it, Titus is campaigning to be the Democratic nominee for governor.

Contact political reporter Erin Neff at 387-2906 or ENeff@reviewjournal.com.