POLITICAL EYE: Ron Paul makes his presence known in Nevada

Call it a new twist on campaigning.

Ron Paul's presidential campaign announced it will hold 15 events in nine days in Nevada to demonstrate "the organizational muscle" of his ground game in the Silver State.

If you thought you might see the Texas congressman at the events, you thought wrong.

"The candidate is not scheduled to attend," the announcement said.

No, Paul and the other candidates are campaigning in New Hampshire ahead of Tuesday's primary and in South Carolina before its Jan. 21 primary and in Florida before its Jan. 31 vote.

Nevada will eventually see the survivors of those contests -- if there are any beyond GOP front-runner Mitt Romney and Paul, who has the best chance to come close to Romney here. The two presidential candidates came in No. 1 and No. 2 in Nevada four years ago and a repeat is expected.

Romney and Paul have the deepest Nevada organizations, while Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry have hired political staff who are preparing to turn up the dials ahead of the state's Feb. 4 GOP presidential caucus if their candidates make it this far.

The Paul team, meanwhile, is working hard to boost excitement and gain support, which is really the point of the long list of events the campaign announced.

"The Ron Paul campaign is serious about a competitive showing in the Feb. 4th Nevada caucus," said Carl Bunce, chairman of Paul's campaign here. "These events will energize voters and other stakeholders to ensure that our seriousness translates into tangible results."

The series of events began last Friday in Las Vegas, where Paul folks handed out literature at the First Friday arts happenings downtown. Other events include phone banks, more literature drops and voter registration drives in Las Vegas. Two events in Henderson involve reaching out to the Mormon community, which largely supports Romney, a member of the church.

-- Laura Myers

SANTORUM FACES ENSIGN QUESTIONS

Whenever Rick Santorum arrives in Nevada to campaign in the state's Republican presidential caucus, he is likely to face questions about the economy, immigration -- and his tie to the scandal that brought down former U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

That's at least one link between Nevada and Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who became the latest GOP contender to grab the spotlight with his all-but-victorious performance in the Iowa caucuses.

Followers of the events that resulted in the Nevadan's resignation from the Senate last May remember Santorum as the buddy who tipped off Ensign in June 2009 that his extramarital affair with the wife of his top aide was in the process of being leaked to Fox News.

Santorum was close friends with Ensign, a former Senate colleague and fellow religious conservative. He initially refused to talk about his role in the Ensign matter, but it came out in a Senate ethics report last May.

In September, Santorum finally acknowledged he had alerted Ensign of impending trouble from Doug Hampton, Ensign's former administrative assistant who was trying to blow the whistle on the affair that had occurred over eight months in 2007 and 2008.

According to the Senate Ethics Committee, Hampton hired an attorney to seek money from Ensign in a bid to repair his life. But after failing to reach a settlement, an incensed Hampton wrote a letter to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelley disclosing the affair and emailed a copy to Santorum, asking for his help.

Santorum at about 10:20 that evening, June 15, 2009, forwarded the letter to Ensign, who immediately called an emergency staff meeting and disclosed the affair. He announced the same at a Las Vegas news conference the next day.

Santorum has been savaged by commentators and bloggers who accuse him of helping Ensign cover up the affair and turning his back on Hampton, a victim of the affair who was seeking his help.

Santorum told Politico in September he was trying to help a friend.

"Now if you get an email from someone saying very salacious things about a friend that could be devastating to a person's friend, that could be devastating to a person's career, what would you do?" Santorum said.

Santorum has hired a Nevada director, who said the Pennsylvanian will campaign in the state. University of Nevada Las Vegas political science professor David Damore said while the sex and intrigue elements of the Ensign story are a draw for the media, it likely will be low on the interest pole for caucusgoers.

"It seems to me you (media) guys love it, but I don't think caucus voters are focused on it," Damore said. "Ensign is in the rearview mirror, and I don't think Santorum is going to be much of a player here anyway.

"It gives (Santorum) a little bit of something to deal with if he does come out here, but at this point people who support him are going to support him because they don't want to support Mitt Romney, and they are not going to care what he did with John Ensign a few years ago."

But no doubt, Damore said, if Santorum gets asked about Ensign in a public forum, that will be the newspaper headline and the featured story on television.

-- Steve Tetreault

ENSIGN'S IOWA VISIT

A side note to both the Iowa caucus and former Sen. Ensign: If not for his downfall, the Nevadan might have been smack in the middle of the caucus action last week.

On June 1, 2009, Ensign, whose Republican star was rising fast at the time, traveled to Sioux City, Iowa, to speak to a conservative group and tour several businesses, including the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor in nearby Le Mars. The trip prompted speculation that he might be positioning himself for national office.

Ensign professed to be taken aback by the attention, even as conventional wisdom has it that no politician ever travels to Iowa by accident.

But only two weeks later, Ensign's climb to national prominence was dashed when he disclosed his affair at a news conference in Las Vegas.

-- Steve Tetreault

HECK ALMOST PERFECT

Rep. Joe Heck says he is not really sure what happened to cause him to be absent for a U.S. House vote last October that turned out to be the only one he missed all year.

"I don't know how I did that," Heck said during an appearance Tuesday on the "Face to Face" political talk show. "I must have run off the floor to talk to a constituent or something."

Twelve House members scored perfect voting attendance in 2011. Seven others including Heck missed just one vote.

In Heck's case, it was a two-minute vote on an amendment to an EPA bill on Oct. 6. Heck said he must have been in the chamber or nearby because he cast votes right before and right after the one he missed.

"I was like, where did that vote go in two minutes?" Heck said.

-- Steve Tetreault

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