Town halls give Ensign hope for re-election

U.S. Sen. John Ensign sounded Tuesday like a man running for re-election two years before his term is up and with his political future in grave doubt.

After his latest town hall meeting in what resembles a redemption tour across Nevada -- from Las Vegas to Lovelock, Elko to Alamo -- Ensign said the largely positive reception he has been getting makes him think voters might forgive him if he survives his legal and ethical troubles.

"Does it give me encouragement? Sure it does," Ensign said when asked whether people attending the meetings give him hope he might return to the Senate for another six years to implement the conservative policies he has been touting to revive the economy.

The Republican hasn't said whether he will run for re-election, but he has been trying to raise money both to defend his Senate seat and himself against possible charges stemming from an extramarital affair and alleged efforts to help the woman's husband find lobbying work.

"If they want to help, that's their business. We just asked them," Ensign said of a recent written appeal he made to his supporters to contribute up to $10,000 each to his legal defense fund.

At Tuesday's town hall at a private college, the cloud hanging over Ensign a year after he confessed to the affair wasn't addressed, although he invited discussion on any topic.

"I don't duck any question. Anything's fair," Ensign said at the ITT Technical Institute before speaking for 15 minutes and then taking questions for 30 minutes.

He looked tanned and relaxed, wearing a dark blue suit and light blue shirt with no tie. Something else is missing these days, say some who have known him for years: the arrogance that led to his downfall.

"This is a different John Ensign," one insider said.

In his speech, Ensign warned that the nation is heading toward another Great Depression unless Republicans are put back in power and in position to stop deficit spending and government expansion under President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party controlling the House and Senate.

The Democrats make the opposite argument, saying that if not for the $787 billion stimulus, industry and bank bailouts and other measures, the recession would be even worse.

"If we don't turn it around in the next four or five years, we are headed toward economic catastrophe," Ensign said. "We need to cut government spending, and we need to cut it severely. ... I think you could cut the government across the board by 20 percent and you wouldn't even notice."

The exception would be for veterans services, Ensign added, since Americans fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan need more support than ever as Iraq combat operations end and Afghanistan heats up.

When asked about the nation's war effort, Ensign said whether or not Americans agreed with the Iraq war, "it's in our vital interest to succeed" in seeing it through. But he expressed dismay the Iraqi government hasn't been forced to use its oil revenues to pay back more U.S. war costs.

On Afghanistan, Ensign said the U.S. military is in danger of getting stuck in another endless morass unless it changes the rules of engagement to allow American soldiers more ability to fight, something Gen. David Petreaus has suggested he would like to do. Under current rules, the U.S. military places a priority on avoiding civilian casualties, but soldiers on the ground "feel they cannot defend themselves," Ensign said, noting he has talked to troops about the dilemma.

Another problem, he said, is the Taliban is being funded by profits from poppy farms that stretch across Afghanistan because the United States no longer eradicates the crops used to make heroin. Instead, there is a program to pay farmers to grow other crops, which Ensign said that is not working.

In April, when he flew over Afghanistan during a visit, Ensign said, "everywhere you looked there were poppy fields," including within 500 yards of a major American military base.

"If we're not in it to win it, we should get out of there," Ensign said of Afghanistan.

But it was Ensign's economic message that resonated most with the audience at a time Nevada has the highest unemployment, home foreclosure and bankruptcy rates.

"I believe the Democrats want to do the right thing, but I believe their policies are wrong," Ensign said, adding that President Franklin Roosevelt tried to spend the nation out of the Great Depression as he launched New Deal programs. "It was the war that brought us out of the depression. He was a great war-time president. I don't believe he was a great economic president."

Ensign said Republicans aren't just "the party of no," but have offered solutions to revive the economy, including cutting spending and taxes and reducing government regulation so private businesses thrive and begin creating jobs and hiring people again.

"In order to have employees you have to have employers," Ensign said, joking that some members of Congress "can't seem to follow" this argument. "You have to have capital; that's capitalism."

Ensign's invited audience of nearly 100 students and teachers seemed receptive, although the room was filled mostly with friendly faces and no apparent Democratic critics to raise a ruckus.

"Look, I'd vote for Ensign again. I'd vote for any Republican at this point just to stop what's going on in Washington," said David Nelson, a curb painter and blue collar worker struggling to get by. "Look, when people are struggling to find jobs and stay in their homes, the only thing people are thinking about is how to make the economy better. They don't care about politicians' personal lives."

So far, Ensign's ethical and legal troubles haven't been raised by audiences ranging from 15 people in the smallest towns to 200 in Las Vegas during the string of town halls he has held in the past couple weeks with several more scheduled for this week, said Jennifer Cooper, a spokeswoman.

Ryan Erwin, a GOP consultant, is a former executive director of the Nevada Republican Party who in that capacity helped Ensign with his first successful 2000 campaign for the Senate. (Ensign barely lost in 1998 to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrat facing Republican Sharron Angle this year.)

Erwin said most people think Ensign could survive the personal scandal of an affair, but if he is criminally indicted or called up on ethics charges, his career would likely end.

"People have survived far greater things than having an affair," Erwin said. "Many people think that adultery is a personal, a family issue. But if there's a legal proceeding, over the course of time we'll have to see how that plays out. For now, John Ensign is a United States senator and he has a responsibility to go out and meet his constituents. I think he's done a nice job of that."

Ensign remains with his wife and, after confessing the affair, has denied any other wrongdoing.

The Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department are running concurrent investigations into Ensign's relationships with Doug and Cindy Hampton, a Las Vegas couple who were family friends and worked for him until May 2008. Ensign confessed his affair with Cindy Hampton last June.

Doug Hampton was Ensign's administrative assistant, a top post in his Washington office, while Cindy Hampton was a paid treasurer on Ensign's two political fundraising committees.

Ensign said the affair with Cindy Hampton lasted over nine months in 2007 and 2008. Later, he said his parents gave the Hamptons $96,000 as a gift around the time they left his employ.

Investigators reportedly are looking into the circumstances of the check. They also are determining whether Ensign may have violated federal law in helping Doug Hampton obtain lobbying clients as a way to smooth his departure, and whether he directed his staff to help Hampton and his new bosses.

A statute forbids senior aides from lobbying the Senate for a year after they leave.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.