Reid, Heller mend relationship after tough Senate race

WASHINGTON - Sen. Harry Reid on Wednesday moved to reset his relationship with newly elected Republican Sen. Dean Heller after a tough campaign where the two were at odds for months.

"Dean Heller and I have been friends for 25 years," Reid said. "I have affection for Dean Heller. I like him a lot. We will be able to work together."

Reid, the Senate majority leader, extended the olive branch hours after Heller was declared the winner in a close race over Reid protege Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

Berkley made full use of the "Reid machine," the Democratic fundraising, registration and get-out-the-vote apparatus that Reid built in Nevada over the past decade. Heller often remarked he was running against two opponents - Berkley and Reid.

Relations between Reid and Heller, who was appointed to the Senate in May 2011 and was seeking full election to the seat, at times were on eggshells during the campaign.

The two had a blowup in September over an online poker bill they are trying to get passed to benefit Nevada casinos.

Reid blamed Heller for failing to win Republican votes, while Heller contended Reid was setting him up and playing politics with the issue to get him defeated.

Reid shrugged off the episode.

"As far as big blowups, that was so minor in my life," he said when asked about Heller during a Wednesday news conference to discuss the election and upcoming lame-duck session of Congress.

Heller also dismissed the controversy in a post-election news conference in Las Vegas early Wednesday morning.

Heller said the dispute was a product of "rough and tumble" politics. He said he and Reid "were wearing different uniforms" during the 2012 campaign and now were back on the same Nevada team.

"He had a job to do, and I had a job to do," Heller said. "That doesn't make it any less difficult for us to work together. Now that we put this campaign behind us, I'm sure Senator Reid and myself will have an opportunity to sit down and talk. And we'll solve the problems Nevada faces, and we'll do it together."

Democrats, meanwhile were licking their wounds over Berkley's loss, a rare downer in an election where the party pulled off surprise victories and expanded its Senate majority to 55 seats.

Weighed down by Republican attacks tied to a House ethics investigation against her, Berkley lost by 20 percentage points among independents and suffered at the hands of voters who split their tickets, voting for Obama and then Heller.

Heller won by 12,127 votes out of 901,153 cast, according to the Nevada secretary of state's office.

Sen. Patty Murray, chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, maintained Berkley was at a disadvantage against Heller, an incumbent though he had been appointed and not previously elected to the seat.

"Running against an incumbent, that is always a challenging thing to do," said Murray, from Washington state. Heller "had a tremendous amount of help and support from his colleagues, and going after an incumbent in a race like that, I think Shelley had a tough time."

Reid, meanwhile, gave his interpretation of the election results when he met with reporters. He dismissed the idea the election merely reinforced the status quo. Obama remained president while Democrats kept control of the Senate and Republicans maintained the House.

"We had an overwhelming re-election of the president," Reid said. Democrats "picked up seats in the Senate. We picked up seats in the House. That is not status quo."

Reid said the election validated calls by Democrats and President Barack Obama that "the richest of the rich have to help a little bit" through higher taxes to rein in deficits.

With new revenues as an element, Reid urged a deal in the upcoming lame-duck session to resolve the "fiscal cliff."

A combination of expiring tax cuts and across-the-board spending cuts set to go into effect at the start of the year will throw the economy back into a recession if not addressed, according to experts.

"We're willing to work it out sooner rather than later," Reid said. "Waiting a month, six weeks, six months, that's not going to solve the problem. We know what needs to be done. We should just roll up our sleeves and get it done."

As the Democratic leader, Reid also issued a warning, saying, "I will do everything in my power to be as conciliatory as possible. I want to work together. But I want everybody to understand you can't kick us around."

Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Laura Myers contributed to this report. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.