Reid won’t seek re-election to Senate in 2016

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Harry Reid announced Friday that he will not seek re-election, a decision that signals the oncoming end of an era in Nevada and scrambles the political landscape in the state and in the nation’s capital.

Acknowledging his career of three-plus decades was winding down, Reid said, “I want to go out at the top of my game.”

“I don’t want to wind up being a pinch hitter,” the Democrat and lifelong baseball fan said discussing his decision on KNPR, the Las Vegas public radio station. “I want people to remember me for my first 34 years in Congress, not my last six.”

Reid, 75, badly hurt his right eye and suffered at least three broken ribs in a freak home exercise accident on New Year’s Day. In a farewell video he posted to his website, he wore a set of glasses with a frosted lens to shield his damaged eye.

Reid maintained his decision to retire was not linked to health concerns, nor to the prospect of facing an uphill re-election campaign in 2016. The lightning rod attached to Reid has grown only taller in recent years as the Nevadan presided over a Senate riven by partisanship.

Rather, he said in a recorded announcement, the accident caused he and his wife, Landra, “to have a little down time. I have had time to ponder and to think.”

“We’ve got to be more concerned about the country, the Senate, the state of Nevada than about ourselves. And as a result of that, I’m not going to run for re-election.”

SURPRISE CALLER

Discussing his decision on Las Vegas’ public radio station Friday morning, Reid received a surprise caller — President Barack Obama.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Reid said, one of the few times that the practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been heard cursing in public.

“When the story is written and when all is told, you are going to have somebody who has done more for Nevada and more for this country as anybody who has been in the Senate,” said Obama, whom Reid had tipped off on Thursday night.

“There were a lot of folks who were slicker and who give smoother TV interviews, but in terms of somebody who has heart and who cares about ordinary people trying to chase the American dream, I don’t think there is anybody out there ever,” Obama said.

Arguably the most powerful politician in Nevada history, Reid will retire after more than 30 years in Congress, including two terms in the House. He served eight years as Senate majority leader, and now is minority leader after Democrats lost control of the Senate in November.

As Reid prepares to depart, he also signaled his preferred successor as Senate party leader and as U.S. senator representing Nevada.

Reid said he would back Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to lead Senate Democrats. Reid and Schumer, presently the No. 3 leader, grew close during the two terms the New Yorker headed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that cemented Democratic control of the Senate and ensured Reid’s post as majority leader.

Reid also said he will encourage former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to run for his seat.

“She has a great resume,” Reid said. “She has a background that really is significantly powerful and I hope she decides to run. If she does, I will help her.”

Until Friday, Reid publicly had insisted he would run for a sixth term despite the accident and the 2014 loss of the Democratic majority in the Senate.

Politico, quoting an unnamed source, said Reid had made his decision privately even before the accident, and grew more comfortable with it leading to his announcement made by a statement and on a YouTube video. It was released as early birds were arising in Nevada, and only several hours after the Senate completed essentially an all-nighter to pass a 2016 budget blueprint.

REID GOAL: SENATE MAJORITY

In his farewell, Reid said he would focus this year on working to regain the Democratic majority in the Senate.

“We have to make sure that the Democrats take control of the Senate again,” Reid said. “And I feel it is inappropriate for me to soak up all those resources on me when I could be devoting those resources to the caucus, and that’s what I intend to do.”

Reid, who grew up in the hard-rock mining town of Searchlight, said he considers himself fortunate to have been able to reach the lofty Senate and serve Nevada for decades.

“Someone with my background, my upbringing, to have the experiences I’ve had is really a miracle,” he said in his video.“And I want you to know that I am so grateful for your invaluable support. I have done my best. I haven’t been perfect, but I’ve really tried my hardest to represent the people of the state of Nevada.”

Reid said he had fulfilled his dreams during his storied career.

“When I was a boy, I dreamed of being an athlete,” Reid said. “I listened to those baseball games on the radio, and I envisioned myself as a man out in center field in Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park in Boston. But the joy I’ve gotten with the work that I’ve done for the people of the state of Nevada has been just as fulfilling as if I had played center field at Yankee Stadium.”

Reid’s retirement announcement came in a 3½-minute video, professionally produced with a stringed music soundtrack playing as photos from Reid’s career and some of him and his family were displayed under his spoken words.

The video appeared to have been filmed at Reid’s Washington condo home at the Ritz-Carlton.

It also included a rare speaking appearance from Landra Reid, in one scene seated beside the senator on a couch.

“I get a little upset sometimes when politicians say they are going to spend more time with their family when they decide they are not going to be in politics anymore,” she said. “He is a wonderful husband and a wonderful father so that has been more important than the other things he has done in his life.”

BATTLE FOR SEAT LOOMS

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committe, said he’s confident Democrats will retain Reid’s seat in the coming political scramble.

“There is a talented pool of Nevada Democrats who are ready to step up to the plate, and we will recruit a top-notch candidate in Nevada who will be successful in holding this seat in 2016,” Tester said.

National Republicans expressed confidence the GOP will win Reid’s seat and retain control of the Senate in the 2016 election, when the White House will be at stake as well.

“Not only does Reid instantly become irrelevant and a lame duck, his retirement signals that there is no hope for the Democrats to regain control of the Senate,” said Ward Baker, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “With the exception of Reid, every elected statewide official in Nevada is Republican and this race is the top pickup opportunity for the GOP.”

Reid saw it differently, saying on KNPR that Nevada Democrats have a solid lead in voter registration for starters.

Beyond that, he said “We have a Nevada state legislature that is Republican-directed that is making a farce of the legislative process. We have some constitutional officers doing some fairly strange things.

“I think this is going to be a rout for Democrats in 2016,” Reid said. “I think we are going to do very, very well.”

In the Senate, the dominoes started falling immediately after Reid made clear he was getting behind Schumer, 64. Sen, Richard Durbin of Illinois, No. 2 in the leadership, endorsed his rival.

Durbin’s bow appears to clear a path for the New Yorker to lead the caucus formally starting in 2017, and to enjoy elevated status as leader-in-waiting until then. The caucus election would be held after the 2016 elections. If Democrats regain the Senate, Schumer would be majority leader.

Reid said he chose to announce his preferred successor to avoid the kind of “knock-down, drag-out” leadership fights that he remembered from his early Senate days. In 1994, for instance, Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., wrangled to become minority leader, with Daschle prevailing, 24-23.

But some Democrats have other ideas. Party progressives uneasy with Schumer’s ties to home state Wall Streeters began urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to run for Reid’s post. Warren’s office said she had no plans to do so.

Another Democrat mentioned as a potential candidate is Patty Murray of Washington state, currently No. 4 in the leadership.

“The election for the Senate’s next Democratic leader shouldn’t be a slam-dunk for any early front-runner,” said Neil Sroka, communications director of Democracy for America, a progressive group.

Reid effectively now embarks on a 22-month farewell tour. Dozens of colleagues and the heads of Democrat-allied interest groups ranging from environmentalists to the gay community extolled the Nevadan on Friday.

Reid’s positions had evolved over the years, becoming more liberal as his responsibilities broadened under the Democratic umbrella. Once a critic of a citizenship birthright for immigrants, for instance, he became a leading champion of immigration reform.

The Nevadan’s embrace of same-sex marriage in 2012 also caused a stir, more so because it split him from Mormon leaders.

Reid on Friday pictured Republicans rejoicing at his planned departure, a reaction that would not be unexpected for someone who engaged in a large number of partisan fights.

“My friend, Senator (Mitch) McConnell, don’t be too elated,” Reid said referring to the current Senate majority leader, a Republican and his current foil. “I am going to be here for 22 months, and you know what I am going to be doing? The same thing I have done since I first came to the Senate.”

Contact Review-Journal Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Follow @STetreaultDC on Twitter. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.