Rep. Shelley Berkley Democrat allowed to keep seat on veterans panel Robert Uithoven, legislative director for then-Rep. Jim Gibbons, talks with Gibbons in his Capitol Hill office in this photo from Oct. 31, 2001. Review-Journal photo Rep. Dean Heller, second from right, poses Jan. 3 for a photo taken by his mother, Janet Heller, with Rep. Jon Porter, right, and Sen. John Ensign, fellow Republicans in the Nevada congressional delegation, at a reception in the nation's capital. Review-Journal photo

After months of puttering around his Reno home, the man largely responsible for getting Gov. Jim Gibbons elected finally has a job.

Robert Uithoven, who worked in Gibbons' congressional office for almost a decade, left Gibbons' employ under not-so-rosy circumstances shortly after Gibbons was elected in November. Since then there has been abundant speculation in political circles about the future of Uithoven.

The answer, Uithoven revealed last week, is that he is starting his own political consulting business.

Called J3 Strategies after his three sons, 6-year-old twins Joshua and Jeremy and 3-year-old Joel, the company will become a major regional political media firm, Uithoven hopes, producing campaign ads for Republican campaigns in the West.

"It will be a political consulting operation, essentially, mostly doing campaigns, focused on media production and consultation, campaign strategy and (strategic) consultation," Uithoven said

Uithoven said he will be partnering with Jim Innocenzi of the Virginia-based national Republican consulting firm Sandler-Innocenzi, which was a consultant to Gibbons' campaign.

Sandler-Innocenzi produced campaign advertising for three successful Republican gubernatorial campaigns in the November election: those of Gibbons, Butch Otter of Idaho and Dave Heineman in Nebraska.

Innocenzi "does very, very good work," Uithoven said. "He was one of the most successful Republican consultants in a very, very bad cycle for Republicans."

Uithoven said he has spoken to staff members of some of the Republican candidates seeking the 2008 presidential nomination but hasn't committed to anyone.

He said he probably will register as a lobbyist for the upcoming legislative session but does not see himself primarily doing lobbying work.

SHORT STAFFED

Is newly minted Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., taking his sweet time staffing his congressional office?

When the congressional session started Jan. 3, Heller had a chief of staff and a press secretary -- both coincidentally named Mac, and neither from Nevada -- but no scheduler or legislative director, two of the four positions that form the backbone of a congressional staff.

In fact, insiders with knowledge of the office say, Mac Abrams and Mac Bybee weren't just the only headline hires Heller had made -- they were his only staffers for more than a week.

A typical congressional staff has 15 to 20 paid workers, including district representatives outside of Washington. Washington insiders said most freshman congressmen were more or less totally staffed by the time the session began, having had since the Nov. 7 election to assemble a team.

Heller's district, the sprawling District 2 that includes all of rural and Northern Nevada, has offices in Reno, Elko and Las Vegas.

It wasn't clear last week to what extent the situation had improved. Bybee, the press secretary, said a legislative director and scheduler had been hired but wouldn't give their names. As for district staffers, he said the office was "in the process" of hiring them.

"I don't have any information to release," he said.

ENSIGN ON ETHICS

When the Senate completed a comprehensive ethics and earmarks bill Thursday, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., claimed a piece of it as his own.

Ensign, with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C., placed an amendment clarifying how senators can remove individual pork barrel items inserted into bills at the last minute in conference committee without proper review.

Currently a senator unhappy with specific pieces added to final bills in conference committee must object to the entire conference report, making it all but impossible to scuttle specific items, Ensign said.

"This is not the way Congress should be legislating," he said.

The amendment allows a senator to raise points of order against specific earmarks, which would be excised unless sponsors gather 60 votes to put the earmarks back into the bill.

COMMITTEE COUP

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., won a waiver last week that will let her return to the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

She had to give up her other panels when she was assigned to the exclusive Ways and Means Committee last month. But leaders grant a limited number of waivers for members to take on a second assignment.

On the VA committee, Berkley has bird-dogged funding for the veterans medical complex being built in North Las Vegas and funding of benefits and health care programs for service members returning from Iraq.

When the waiver was offered, "I took it in a heartbeat," Berkley said. "Just having a spot on that committee gives me the opportunity to do oversight on the (Southern Nevada) medical complex."

'HARDBALL' WITH GIBBONS

Gibbons is scheduled to be interviewed by the cable news show "Hardball With Chris Matthews" on Friday, his spokeswoman said.

Melissa Subbotin said Gibbons agreed to go on the program but does not know what the topic will be.

Gibbons will be in Las Vegas that day for meetings and the Southern Nevada inaugural ball. A second ball is scheduled for Jan. 30 in Reno.

Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this report.