Nobel raises hopes of Gore fan

When Ed Cohen heard Al Gore had won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, he was filled with renewed hope.

Cohen went to the Web site of Draft Gore, a movement unaffiliated with the former vice president that is trying to get him to run for president once again.

Cohen had signed the petition weeks before, but he figured there might be a renewed groundswell, he wrote in the forum, "Draft Gore Northern Nevada Says Run Gore Run."

Alas, Cohen so far is the only Nevadan on the site posting comments calling for Gore to enter the Democratic fray.

Thirty-five other Nevadans are listed on the site, not counting two New Yorkers who apparently entered the wrong state abbreviation and this reporter, who had to register to gain access to the site.

"All along, I've been feeling not really excited about any of the other candidates, especially Hillary (Clinton)," said Cohen, 48, who lives in Reno and works for UNR's Sanford Center for Aging.

"For people like myself, progressives, the idea that it's sort of a fait accompli that she's going to be the nominee is disconcerting and worrying. I frankly think if she's the nominee we're looking at a President Giuliani. So many people are just so energized to defeat her."

Cohen is a fervent anti-war activist who organizes protests and is active with MoveOn.org.

He's a registered non- partisan, not a Democrat, and likely won't participate in January's nominating caucuses as a result, although he said he could still volunteer for a candidate he liked.

"When a lot of people were still saying, 'Let's wait and see if it works,' he was giving some really passionate speeches against the war," Cohen said of Gore.

None of the current candidates, he said, has the right combination of views on the issues and electability, he said.

"I started liking Obama because he always opposed the war, but some of his other statements since then have kind of scared me -- bombing Pakistan and whatnot," Cohen said. "The person with impeccable credentials on the war issue is Dennis Kucinich, but he has no chance. And I'm from Cleveland and I think he's a kook."

Kucinich, who is mounting his second peace-platform campaign, is a congressman from Cleveland and former mayor of the city.

Gore doesn't have much time to decide to run, an endeavor that can't have left a good taste in his mouth the last time he tried it.

The deadline to file for the New Hampshire primary is Nov. 2.

"I'm hoping that he'll say, 'I just won the Nobel -- maybe that'll be the springboard to a really easy victory,'" Cohen said.

ENSIGN TARGETED

Already the target of negative editorials in the New York Times and Washington Post for blocking a bill requiring Senate candidates to disclose their campaign finance reports electronically, U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., took another hit Friday from a group affiliated with George Washington University.

The Campaign Finance Institute accused Ensign of "single-handedly stalling" the bill with an amendment requiring nonprofit groups that file ethics complaints against senators to disclose all their donors who gave more than $5,000.

The institute issued a statement describing Ensign's amendment as unrelated and further questioned its validity by putting the word ethics in quotation marks.

"Senator Ensign had been in Congress since 1995. That is long enough for him to know that springing a controversial amendment toward the end of a congressional session is a time honored way for senators to kill popular legislation without accepting the public responsibility for having done so," the institute's statement said.

Ensign, who served in the House from 1995 through 1998 before being elected to the Senate in 2000, continues to insist he supports the electronic disclosure of campaign finance reports.

But he also insists his amendment should be included in the bill, and he blames Democrats for blocking both pieces of legislation.

"There have been a lot of inaccuracies in the news stories on this issue," Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola said.

"Both the e-filing and Senator Ensign's amendment are needed in the United States Senate," Mazzola said.

PORTER CASH

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., plans to file campaign finance disclosures today that put him on pace to match his war chest from the 2006 campaign.

Porter will disclose that he has raised $284,445 in the third quarter of 2007 and $979,786 for the cycle, leaving him with $769,030 in cash on hand, an aide said.

At this time in 2005, Porter had raised $210,539 in the third quarter, $978,623 for the cycle and had $741,045 on hand.

Porter is guaranteed to come under heavy fire from a well-funded opponent in 2008, just as he did last year, when he beat political newcomer Tessa Hafen by just a few thousand votes.

Porter's likely Democratic challenger, Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas, hadn't yet filed a fundraising report Friday. The deadline is midnight.

It will be the first disclosure filed by Daskas, who announced his candidacy last month but won't start campaigning until he finishes working on a high-profile murder trial.

Another contender for the Democratic nomination, local accountant Andrew Martin, also hadn't yet filed. His last disclosure showed him with $14,800 on hand at the end of June.

"Congressman Porter continues to be encouraged by the movement of his campaign," spokesman Matt Leffingwell said. "These are strong numbers that signal that he has strong support to carry him through the election."

Porter's haul pales in comparison to a fellow member of the Nevada delegation, Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley, who is unlikely to face serious opposition for re-election in her heavily Democratic, and heavily Shelley-philic, district.

An aide to Berkley said she plans to report raising $290,268 in the third quarter and $1,254,391 for the cycle, and having $1,263,223 on hand.

Nobody has yet filed to oppose her.

MAZE MOVES

Peggy Maze Johnson, one of the state's most talented squeaky wheels, left her post as longtime anti-nuclear crusader earlier this year, quitting her job as executive director of Citizen Alert to work as an adviser for the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Last week, however, Maze Johnson switched jobs again, and is now executive director of the Clark County Democratic Party.

It's the first time the county party has had a paid staffer.

The Clark County Republican Party does not have one.

"I had to take it. It was a dream job," Maze Johnson, who has a political background, said last week.

"I guess the fact that I think that shows that I'm a little off, doesn't it?"

Contact political reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2919. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Tony Batt at tbatt@stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760.