The Republican Party has turned the campaign kick-off into must-see television. Picture perfect. Stylistically brilliant and, typically, little more.

When Democrat Jack Carter kicked off his Senate campaign yesterday at the AFL-CIO complex in Henderson, there was enough of that formula missing to make it clear this is a campaign of substance.

Carter had the ultimate photo-op behind him on stage, the 37th president of the United States. But neither Jimmy Carter, nor his wife Rosalyn, spoke on behalf of their son. There were no balloons, no streamers, no pre-printed orange Carter Nevada 2006 signs, no music, no federal representatives.

Heck, the microphone didn't even work for eight minutes. When has that ever happened in a union shop?

But while pundits have universally and summarily discounted Carter's ability to beat Ensign, there was something refreshing about Monday's speech.

Carter talked about the nation's shared values -- liberty, democracy, the Constitution, the rule of law, family, community and cooperation.

It sounded like a Democratic platform.

Carter said he decided to run because "I believe our government has moved away from our core values."

He didn't decry the poll-tested "culture of corruption" his party likes to trot out, but he made the same point by criticizing the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Carter spoke about national security as paramount, but questioned the president's unilateral eavesdropping program through the National Security Administration.

"We Americans live under the rule of law. Before my president eavesdrops on me, I want my representatives in Congress to have an open debate about whether it's necessary or not. I want the Supreme Court to rule that it doesn't violate my personal freedoms as set forth in the Constitution, and then I want the president to execute that law under judicial review. That's the American way."

Carter said he had the answer for a number of the nation's problems -- from Iraq to national security to health care.

"All we need is a return to our American values -- and new leadership," the refrain of his speech went.

The packed room in the Painter's Hall didn't seem to catch on that "and new leadership" could have been a great chant line.

Perhaps some were busy trying to figure out the distracting mini-event taking place in the same room.

State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus was sitting on the stage before Carter spoke. In fact, her chair didn't fit in the neat back row of chairs, so her seat at the side of the lectern made her more a focus than Jimmy or Rosalyn.

When Clark County Democratic Chair Liz Foley introduced the party's two gubernatorial candidates, Titus waved from the stage and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson received polite applause from his position against the side wall.

Shelley Berkley's campaign manager, Renee Aschoff, realized the major faux pas and gave Titus her seat on the back row. She then walked around the back of the room with a chair until she got to Gibson and encouraged him to come up on the stage.

Not wanting to be a distraction, Gibson declined and, in so doing, made the whole thing a bigger distraction.

If Gibson's just going to be a wallflower, maybe he should drop out of the race and return his campaign contributions so his donors might be able to put their money to good use -- getting Jack Carter some air time.

Carter isn't a politician and he actually talks sense. His grass-roots campaign is going to be a big gamble, trying to take on someone who can raise $10 million for the race, and who also possesses a winning smile.

The other man from Plains, Ga., isn't afraid of being tarnished a carpet-bagger despite moving here with his wife, Elizabeth, three years ago.

"Elizabeth and I did not have the good fortune to be born in Nevada," he said. "We spent years in the wilderness before we found this promised land."

Ensign himself was born in California, lest we forget. Nobody questions his Nevada bona fides or complains about the help he got from his daddy, casino executive Mike Ensign.

Carter's campaign will run at Ensign by lumping him into the Washington political morass the public dislikes.

On Monday, he didn't mention Ensign by name, but criticized his near lock-step voting record with the Bush administration. "I don't want to be one of the Democrats like my opponent is one of the Republicans," he said.

Now if he could only get the style thing down and a little money, we might just have a race.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. You can reach her at 387-2906 or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.