With candidates like these, who really wants to visit the ballot box?

Nevadans were told this week that among their choices for U.S. Senate, the Democratic candidate is corrupt, the Republican is ineffective. That sure makes you want to rush out and vote.

Rep. Shelley Berkley on Tuesday was among 20 members of Congress dubbed corrupt by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Except CREW's Executive Director, Melanie Sloan, has bounced all over the map about Berkley's ethics issues, from saying essentially that Berkley's multiple failures to disclose her husband might benefit from her votes were no big deal to now placing Berkley on this undesirable list.

Which is it? Is Berkley, now under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, corrupt, or was this a minor blip?

Her sin was failing to disclose that her husband was a kidney doctor when she advocated for bills involving kidney care. She also failed to disclose he had a contract to provide kidney care services to University Medical Center when she was pushing against the federal government's efforts to close the transplant center because too many people were dying. Fewer people than the national average now are dying at UMC's kidney transplant center.

Despite vacillating comments from Sloan about the seriousness of Berkley's alleged wrongdoing, CREW placed her on the "dishonorable mention" of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. The report is not wishy-washy, stating unequivocally that Berkley "has spent a career advocating for renal care physicians, in spite of an obvious conflict of interest created by her husband's medical practice."

It marks her second year on the list and is a boon to Sen. Dean Heller's campaign, which already has ads on the air using the CREW report against the seven-term House member.

Heller didn't escape unscathed this week. He is the one chastised as ineffective by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat who doesn't have the same warm-and-friendly relationship he had with Heller's predecessor, Sen. John Ensign. Reid and Ensign used to hold joint coffees for constituents. Reid and Heller don't.

Reid, quite obviously, is strategizing for ways to help Berkley win because he needs her to win to help him stay in the majority leader's job. Using his bully pulpit as majority leader, he obtains news coverage that less powerful senators would not.

Heller said he was trying to persuade the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to draw up an online gaming bill. But a committee aide told the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Steve Tetreault there are no such plans. That didn't exactly seem like a successful effort by Heller and contributed to his image as ineffective.

Reid certainly knows how to write a scathing letter, even if it's laughable when he writes that he didn't want the issue to become political. Of course he did, and anyone who doesn't realize that is surely naïve. Maybe he put it in a letter because he couldn't say it with a straight face.

"I did not want this issue to become political in nature, but I cannot stand by while you abdicate your responsibility as a U.S. Senator representing Nevada," Reid's letter said. "Nevadans deserve someone who will fight for them."

Corrupt versus ineffective. A reliable vote for Reid's agenda or someone who will fight the majority leader on issues, perhaps even to the detriment of the state's best interests. What a choice we face.

Yet when I spoke to a men's group this week (a cheerfully named "Men of Leisure" group), only two or three out of about 40 were undecided in the Senate race.

Maybe decisions have already been made in this, one of two close Senate races that could determine whether Democrats hold the majority, or lose it.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison