Heller says GOP debate ‘contentious’

The reviews are in and the winner is ... nobody.

So says U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, who watched the testy GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas on CNN along with another 5.5 million viewers.

"I think everyone went down a notch," Heller said Friday on the last day of a GOP conference at The Venetian that kicked off with last Tuesday's debate. "It was too contentious. It just got too personal."

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney went toe-to-toe on illegal immigration. The Texas governor reminded Romney he once hired a lawn company with illegal workers, and Romney reminded Perry that he hadn't done so well in the four previous GOP debates.

The two men looked like they might come to blows, and Romney even put his hand on Perry.

Romney backers -- and there were more of them than anyone else in the debate audience -- said the former Massachusetts governor stood his ground. And he didn't' seem to lose supporters in Nevada, where he won the 2008 GOP caucus and is the man to beat again in 2012.

Perry, meanwhile, didn't seem to gain any new friends in his first Nevada campaign stop, according to interviews with people attending the four-day Western Republican Leadership Conference.

"People said they were disappointed in Perry," said state Sen. Barbara Cegavske, of Las Vegas, who attended the debate and conference. "That's been the buzz in the cocktail crowd."

GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval and other Perry backers said they were glad to see the Texan's feisty side come out, yet he didn't seem to score many points with Nevadans and other Westerners in town last week.

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Herman Cain was the big star of the conference, drawing the biggest crowd -- up to 500 people -- when he spoke the day after the debate. And many of the true-blue conservatives at the conference seemed to forgive any flaws in his 9-9-9 economic plan. Not one Cain supporter interviewed liked the idea of a 9 percent national sales tax, with one woman saying, "Oh, he wouldn't get that out of Congress anyway." The other 9's would be a 9 percent tax on personal income and a 9 percent tax on corporations, a flat levy with some deductions, Cain said.

Heller is among Republicans who are marveling at the rise of the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, who's leading some polls.

Cain's smooth speaking style and compelling personal story -- he calls himself a "Main Street" CEO instead of a Wall Street-style executive like Romney -- may account for his current popularity.

After Heller addressed the conference Friday evening, he mingled with a couple dozen people who had stayed through the end instead of sneaking out early as some of the 100-plus crowd did.

"I'm no Herman Cain," Heller joked to one well-wisher who said she liked his speech, which focused on why the GOP needs to win in 2012.

State Sen. James Settelmeyer, of Minden, said his constituents in Douglas County told him their favorites after the debate were Cain and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and conservative favorite.

Despite that, there's a lingering feeling Cain of Georgia isn't up to the job of president, Settelmeyer said, predicting Republicans will eventually settle on Romney, the safe GOP choice.

"He's not vetted," Settelmeyer said of Cain. "Will the American people vote for someone who's not vetted? He has no record."

On his cellphone, Settelmeyer has a picture of a truck driving around Douglas County with two anti-Cain bumper stickers, including "Cain Unable," that demonstrate the point.

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A Snooki mention got one of the biggest rounds of applause and laughter during the Western Republican Leadership Conference.

U.S. Rep. Joe Heck, of Nevada, in criticizing President Barack Obama's health care reform, last Thursday told GOP activists that it's being paid for in part by several new taxes.

"There is a 10 percent tax on tanning -- tanning of all things," Heck said, "Which has caused Snooki of 'Jersey Shore' to say she'll never vote for President Obama again."

Actually, the star of the MTV reality show, who has an orange-looking tan, said she voted for GOP nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, in 2008. But she did say last year that she had stopped going to tanning bed places because of the tax.

"I don't go tanning anymore because Obama put a 10 percent tax on tanning," she said in 2010. "McCain would never put a 10 percent tax on tanning -- because he's pale and would probably want to be tan."

In an interview with McCain's daughter, Meghan, Snooki said she isn't a registered Republican or Democrat. (So Snooki may not have fit in very well among the GOP women at the conference, who seemed to favor red hats and pearls and not short dresses with low-cut cleavage.)

"I actually signed up as an independent, just because I don't want to pick any side, and also I don't really know a lot about politics," Snooki said in the Daily Beast interview. "I only know politics about, like, you know, tanning and being a Guidette. So when I saw it was Obama and McCain, to be honest with you, the only reason why I voted for your father was because he was really cute and I liked when he did his speeches."

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The conservative crowd showed their love for Herman Cain in a straw poll conducted by Citizen Outreach at the Western Republican Leadership Conference.

Cain won 31 percent of support from those surveyed over three days after last Tuesday's debate. Mitt Romney was close behind with 29 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich at 20 percent, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas at 10 percent, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at nearly 4 percent. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, scored 1 percent each.

The straw poll had 552 participants, according to Citizen Outreach, a conservative group.

"Republicans see Romney as the candidate who can beat Obama," said David Mans­doerfer of Citizen Outreach who oversaw the poll. "At this point, it looks like Romney and Cain are the two to beat in Nevada."

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers
@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow her on Twitter @lmyerslvrj.