Doors close at Ensign offices

A sign directing visitors to the office of "United States Senator John E. Ensign" still hangs in the hallway on the eighth floor of the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas.

Behind a closed door, a wicker basket half full of Smarties candy rolls sits on the reception desk, next to a little chrome bell. A letter to Ensign from the Department of the Army and the Air Force is waiting to be opened, a visitors log ready to be signed.

"Ding, ding, ding," a visitor tries the tinny bell three times, but nobody appears to be there.

It's Tuesday, a quarter till noon. The office feels like a ghost ship, suddenly abandoned and adrift a week after Ensign resigned and a day after Dean Heller was sworn in to take his place.

This is a time of transition. Ensign is no longer a senator, yet his staff has up to 60 days to wrap up business before former Rep. Heller can occupy the space, now controlled by the secretary of the Senate.

So the phones to Ensign's offices in Las Vegas, Carson City, Reno and Washington, D.C., have been forwarded to Heller's temporary Senate office in the nation's capital so the Republican and his staff can start serving his Nevada constituents statewide.

"Not one phone call will go unanswered," Heller spokesman Stewart Bybee said Tuesday, adding the goal is a smooth transition for people looking for help or information on everything from housing to Social Security checks.

Even Heller's new Senate website remains a work in progress. Click on http://heller.senate.gov and get redirected to a simple one-page site with a picture of Heller, a bit about the new 51-year-old senator and a contact number: 202-224-6244, Ensign's old one.

Ensign's website (http://ensign.senate.gov) is gone, wiped from the Web as if he never existed, despite a decade in the Senate before he resigned over the fallout from an extramarital affair.

"Constituent services will be handed to Senator Heller," Jennifer Cooper, an Ensign office spokeswoman reached on her cell phone.

Heller's staff also plans to transfer ongoing casework from his 2nd Congressional District office to his Senate office.

The 2nd Congressional District offices in Las Vegas, Reno, Elko and Washington remain open for business with more than a dozen staffers now working under the direction of the House clerk.

That temporary solution will continue until Heller is replaced after a scheduled Sept. 13 special election.

Because Heller is running for election to the Senate office in 2012, Democrats are ready to pounce on any missteps during the transition, including hiring decisions and any constituent complaints.

Matt Canter, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was on the receiving end of such treatment when he was the spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who in 2009 replaced Hillary Clinton in the Senate after she became secretary of state.

"The press was just brutal," Canter said.

Still, Canter said Heller's handling of the Senate transition should be scrutinized. "I think that says something about his leadership skills," he said.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is prepared to pick up any slack, a spokesman said Tuesday. Reid's Las Vegas office is on the same floor and in the same building as Ensign's.

According to the Ensign office visitor log, the last constituent to sign in was Angel Cabrera on April 7, two weeks before the one-time rising Republican star announced he planned to resign.

Cabrera said Tuesday she had stopped by on behalf of the Nevada Minority Business Council.

"We work with all of them: Senator Ensign, Senator Reid, Congresswoman (Shelley) Berkley," Cabrera said.

Berkley, D-Nev., is Heller's main Democratic Party opponent for the Senate seat.

Cabrera said she had not met Heller but hoped to get to know him.

"We'll see how it goes," Cabrera said.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.