Jeff German: Gephardt - Coffin could land seat on Ways and Means panel

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

FOR THE MOST part, the gaming industry stayed away from Bob Coffin's campaign fund-raiser this week with House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.

But Coffin, who's running against Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., didn't seem to mind much.

Coffin received a pleasant surprise at Bally's Sunday, when Gephardt told fellow Democrats he'll push to get Coffin appointed to the influential House Ways and Means Committee seat now held by Ensign.

"It's an indication of how serious Gephardt takes this race," Coffin said Monday.

All this assumes Coffin, a Democratic state senator from Las Vegas, can defeat the high-powered Ensign machine in what conservative columnist George Will has called the most important congressional race in the nation.

It also assumes Gephardt and the Democrats regain control of the House, which many believe could happen because of a voter backlash against the Newt Gingrich-led Republicans.

Gephardt said Democrats need 19 seats to get back in charge.

But Ensign said Monday he was confident Republicans will increase their lead by 10 seats and shoot down the Ways and Means scenario advanced by Gephardt.

Ensign, receiving heavy campaign backing from the casino industry, also described himself as having done an "incredible job" on the committee, saving the state and private business hundreds of millions of dollars.

Will suggested Sunday the "House could turn" on the outcome of the Ensign-Coffin race, and Gephardt used those words to proclaim that the eyes of the nation will be on the race.

If the Democrats recapture the reins, Gephardt will succeed Gingrich as speaker and hand out new committee assignments.

The Ways and Means seat, which can have a big impact on the business community, has become an issue in the Ensign-Coffin race.

Recently, Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn, a strong Ensign supporter, indicated he was backing the freshman Republican to protect the seat.

Gephardt tried to neutralize that argument Sunday, when he suggested there's a good chance the seat will remain in Nevada if Ensign loses.

"If Newt Gingrich and the Republicans can appoint John Ensign to the Ways and Means Committee," he said, "I'm going to do everything I can to see that there's a replacement from this state."

Gephardt insisted Coffin, a longtime member of the state Senate Finance Committee, is well-qualified for Ways and Means.

The strategy could persuade some gaming leaders to hedge their bets in the race, though it's unlikely to influence Wynn and Ensign's father, Mike Ensign, who runs the daily affairs of Circus Circus Enterprises.

As it turned out, the only casino owner attending Coffin's $250-a-head fund-raiser was Michael Gaughan, who operates the Barbary Coast and the Gold Coast hotel-casinos.

The Showboat hotel-casino also sent an executive to the affair, which Coffin said raised between $30,000 and $40,000.

Not surprisingly, Wynn did not show up. But that didn't stop Coffin campaign workers from making light of the snub. They left a name tag for Wynn at the greeting table.

Ensign, meanwhile, predicted his well-financed re-election bid will get stronger in the weeks ahead, as he lays out his accomplishments.

Earlier this year, Gingrich and House Majority Leader Dick Armey demonstrated the importance of the race by traveling to Las Vegas to raise money for Ensign.

Ensign believes he has a positive message to tell the voters -- one that puts him at the forefront of the movement to reform the federal bureaucracy.

Gephardt and the Democrats, however, see things differently.

In the weeks ahead, they'll be portraying Ensign as part of what Gephardt calls the Gingrich-led "wrecking crew" that has made life difficult for millions of Americans.

The voters, of course, will have the last word.

* The most amusing part of Gephardt's talk Sunday wasn't heard by the majority of Democrats in the audience.

Gephardt took a moment to praise Nevada's Democratic members of Congress -- Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan and former Rep. James Bilbray, who lost to Ensign in 1994.

"I don't know what it is, whether it's in the air, or the water," Gephardt said, as he complimented the state for developing its Democratic leaders.

But before he could finish, County Commissioner Myrna Williams, sitting at a table in the back of the room, jokingly remarked: "It's the radiation."

Williams drew laughs from those nearby who know the state's long history with nuclear testing.