The invisible elephant in the room

The ghost of politically crippled Sen. John Ensign will hover over the U.S. Senate race in Nevada this fall, Politico reports this morning.

"Even though he isn’t often seen at state political events and isn’t on the ballot this November, some Republicans here fear his political baggage could emerge as a liability to GOP candidates this fall," and Senate hopeful Sharron Angle in particular, according to a piece on its website.

It is only a matter of time, Republicans fear, before Democrats bring up Ensign and raise a scenario where Nevada could be represented  in the Senate by a team consisting of a freshman and a senator who may be on his way out the door.

Following party losses in the 2008 elections Ensign announced he would rebuild the state GOP, even though he had been somewhat apart from the machinery throughout his political career.

But after last June, when he acknowledged his affair with a former political aide who was his wife's best friend, all that went out the window. Ongoing ethics and criminal investigations have kept him with a largely low profile.

"A political figure with the standing that Ensign once enjoyed might have been able to help repair alliances with the warring factions, fine-tune the party infrastructure and raise money for the GOP nominee who will square off against (Sen. Harry) Reid’s well-financed machine," Politico said.

Chad Christensen, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully in the Senate primary, told Politico, “It really makes it tough to unite the party. Anytime people have significant ‘issues,’ it puts a question mark in people’s minds.”