Top aide defends Reid on online poker

WASHINGTON - A top aide on Friday defended Sen. Harry Reid's handling of legislation to legalize Internet poker, an effort near collapse with Nevada's two senators at odds.

David Krone, Reid's chief of staff, took the unusual step of showing internal emails and documents to Nevada reporters as he gave the Senate majority leader's version of events that led to a blowup between Reid and Sen. Dean Heller earlier this month.

Aides to the senators acknowledge the feud has crippled chances to pass an online gaming bill in a postelection lame-duck session in November and December.

But in the meantime, the senators through their staffs have attempted to shape the narrative of their poker efforts. The emails provided a glimpse at the discussions that took place behind the scenes while the main players maintained a near-silence in public until recently.

The legislation itself has not been made public. Krone acknowledged the strategy was to keep it under wraps to prevent it from attracting opposition.

In an hourlong interview, Krone sought to portray Reid as an honest broker and to show the Nevada staffs working together, at least for a time. Emails show top staffers in regular contact during May on strategy to find a way to pass an online poker bill.

The emails show Krone and Mac Abrams, Heller's chief of staff, sharing frustration over an inability to engage Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who helped write the bill with Reid, more heavily in moving the bill forward.

"I think Jon Kyl has talked a lot but hasn't delivered," Krone said Friday. "We kept trying to come up with vehicles, but every time we came up with something, it was never good enough."

According to the email messages, the Nevada aides also puzzled over a seeming lack of interest from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, even as the legislation contained provisions favored by Kentucky horse racing interests.

A summit meeting involving Reid, Heller, Kyl and McConnell was set up for May 23. But Reid canceled it that morning after speaking to McConnell and concluding the Republican leader was not willing to deal, according to Krone.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Friday night that Krone was engaged in writing "revisionist history," and that it was no secret why the Kentucky senator was not on board.

"Sen. McConnell made very clear from the beginning that Sen. Reid's efforts to write this bill behind closed doors, with no input from the committees or his constituents, was not an approach he could support," Stewart said.

Kyl faulted Reid for putting his political goals ahead of serious efforts to pass the online gaming proposal.

"It's not too late to get this done in the lame duck, but Harry Reid will have to stop playing partisan politics lest he poison the well all together," Kyl said Friday in a statement.

Krone disputed reports that Reid had agreed to a strategy that called for the House first to pass an Internet gaming bill, saying Nevada would have been shortchanged in any such bill.

Krone said Barry Jackson, former chief of staff to House Speaker John Boehner, advised him the Senate should go first.

But efforts to place the poker bill on a Senate homeland security spending bill failed to win support from Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind. Krone said a plan to place it on a cyber-security bill was rejected by Kyl.

By August, Krone said, the gaming industry was "panicking," and Reid proposed to try to bring it up in September. According to Krone, after giving up on McConnell, Reid on May 24 asked Heller to get 15 other Republicans, and Heller said he would try.

With a Senate leadership meeting set for Sept. 10, a Monday, to set the month's schedule for bills, Krone said he spoke with Heller's legislative director the Friday before and asked her to get back to him as to whether Heller had the votes.

Instead of a call, Krone said Heller responded with a letter questioning the strategy. The poker bill was shelved, the letter found its way into the media, and the Nevadans have bickered ever since.

Krone said he was speaking up in response to Heller's charge last weekend that Reid was playing politics with the bill and "would rather have Shelley Berkley win ... than have this bill pass." Heller and Democratic Rep. Berkley are in a close race for Senate.

The second reason, he said, is to rebut a narrative that blames Reid for failure to pass a bill critical to Nevada's casino industry. Online poker represents the next big thing for gaming companies whose brick-and-mortar outlets have struggled.

"I am not going to let Dean Heller go out there and call Harry Reid a liar, which is essentially what he is doing," Krone said.

"Whether you believe this or not, I am going to say this: I believe that Harry Reid put this before getting Shelley Berkley elected. I firmly believe that because he knew how important it is to the state."

Heller's spokesman said Friday that Heller and Reid have worked together on the issue for several years.

"It is unfortunate that this issue which is so important to the state of Nevada has come down to false accusations and finger pointing," Stewart Bybee said.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Follow him on Twitter @STetreaultDC.