Bill Clinton to host for Reid

Be good to the Clintons, and they will be good to you. That's the moral of the Rory Reid story.

Reid, the Clark County Commission chairman, would-be Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2010 and son of the U.S. Senate majority leader, will have a second fundraiser hosted for him by former President Bill Clinton next month.

This one is scheduled for May 11 in New York City, at the home of financier Marc Lasry, according to a source with knowledge of the event.

Clinton hosted a Las Vegas fundraiser for Reid's campaign back in February that brought in more than $300,000.

Reid served as the Nevada chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, signing on early in 2007 and working tirelessly on her behalf in the increasingly bitter contest between Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton won the Nevada caucuses, but Obama went on to win the Democratic presidential nomination and, of course, the presidency.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, Reid's potential primary rival, hasn't announced whether she plans to seek the nomination. She would be banned from fundraising now because the legislative session is going on, a fact that gives the well-connected Reid a considerable early advantage.

As of the beginning of the year, Buckley and Reid each had about $1 million in the bank.

EN-LIST-ED FOR DUTY

Former Gov. Bob List is likely to be Nevada's new Republican National Committeeman, sources inside the GOP say.

The position is open since attorney Joe Brown, who held post for several years, had to quit to take an appointment to the state Gaming Commission, which bars members from serving in partisan positions.

List said last week he'd been approached by "several party leaders" about the possibility but hadn't made up his mind whether to make himself a candidate.

Whether or not he decides to take the plunge, List has some thoughts about how to improve the state Republican Party, which is broke and struggling for direction after last year's election losses.

"There's a tremendous need to modernize our communications system with a high-tech approach," he said. "There's a real need for recruitment of good, passionate candidates and certainly for fundraising to fuel the system," he said.

Republicans, he said, should stay true to core values, "and in today's economic context, that certainly includes pushing back against this enormous spending, borrowing and taxing spree that's under way in Washington. I think that will energize not only Republicans, but also Democrats and Libertarians and people of all stripes throughout the state for next year's elections. We need to capture that momentum."

As to whether his previous work as a lobbyist on behalf of the nuclear industry in support of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository could create an issue for the party, List noted that he no longer has that job.

"As a lawyer, I have a lot of clients in many different arenas," he said. "I would never let any work I do privately on behalf of clients overlap or influence my activities as a party official."

The party is still figuring out the procedure for naming a new committeeman. Meanwhile, the state party is still conducting its search for a new executive director.

LOOKING FOR NO. 59

Taking questions at a renewable energy event in Las Vegas last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he expects to have Al Franken by his side in the Senate within weeks.

"He should be with us in the next couple of weeks," pending a possible Supreme Court challenge, Reid said of the humorist and would-be senator from Minnesota.

Last Monday, a state court named Franken, a Democrat like Reid, the winner of the hair's-breadth election, but Republican Norm Coleman has said he will appeal to the state's high court.

If Franken finally wins the election held five months ago, he would be the 59th Democrat in the Senate.

Even with Franken's help, Reid said, passing legislation to address climate change stands to be a very difficult challenge because of all the senators who will be looking to protect home-state coal interests.

He noted that he has had his own battle with the coal industry since he announced in 2007 his opposition to the building of coal-fired power plants in Nevada, something he said his advisers warned was politically unwise.

The three components of energy legislation that need to be addressed, according to Reid, are increasing efficiency standards for buildings and appliances; building a "superhighway" electrical grid for renewable energy; and fighting global warming, likely through a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits. The first of those three he called relatively easy to accomplish; the second doable; the third, he said, will be a fight.

Reid said he's leaning toward combining the energy and climate provisions into one piece of legislation, currently in the hands of the House of Representatives, rather than one at a time.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.