Columnist Jeff German: Clinton, cabinet members flocking to Las Vegas

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997 | 9:58 a.m.

FROM THE PRESIDENT on down, the Clinton administration is piling up frequent mileage points on trips to Las Vegas.

The latest Clinton cabinet member to sign up for the red-eye out of Washington is Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

He's scheduled to headline the groundbreaking for the massive Spaghetti Bowl remodeling on Interstate 15. The $91.8 million project, designed to ease the congested interchange, is funded in large part with federal transportation dollars.

Slater is the fifth member of the Clinton administration, including the president, to visit Las Vegas in the past four months.

In August, Energy Secretary Frederico Pena toured the Nevada Test Site outside Las Vegas. October brought Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, followed by Labor Secretary Alexis Herman last week.

Clinton himself recently blew into town on Air Force One for a series of Democratic Party fund-raisers.

Capitol Hill insiders say it's no coincidence that the administration has been making more visits to Las Vegas.

The trips coincide with the stepped-up re-election campaign of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a Senate leader and strong Clinton ally.

The monthly visits should put aside any doubts about Reid's clout in Washington.

Clinton last year called Nevada's senior senator, who co-chairs the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, one of the most under-rated politicians in Washington.

Reid faces a tough re-election fight with Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., once one of the most trusted minions of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Expect more cabinet members to take the red-eye to Las Vegas next year, as the Senate campaign moves into high gear.

There's no campaign controversy this time for Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones.

A fund-raiser, put off six weeks ago because of confusion over the mayor's political future, has been re-scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at a downtown restaurant.

The $500-a-person reception is being billed as a re-election event.

It's a strong indication that Jones has decided to concentrate on winning a third term as mayor in 1999.

For awhile, Jones flirted with the idea of running for governor after Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa bowed out of the race.

Hence, the delay in the fund-raiser.

But like her fellow Democrat, Jones came to the conclusion a couple weeks ago that Republican Kenny Guinn has put together a formidable statewide campaign that will be tough to beat.

In the city, however, Jones is almost untouchable.

City Councilman Michael McDonald is working hard to up his profile for some strange reason.

The folks at Planet Hollywood at the Forum Shops are doing their best to accommodate him.

The restaurant put out a news release Monday calling the ambitious McDonald one of its special guests, along with comedian Carrot Top, at an evening dinner there to welcome the Ms. America Pageant contests to town.

A huge banner bearing the name of McDonald and Carrot Top appeared outside the mall entrance to Planet Hollywood over the weekend.

And to think, Planet Hollywood isn't even in McDonald's district, not to mention the city's limits. It's in the county.

Is the councilman looking to run for office outside the city?

A recent column here on the high rate of water usage among country clubs prompted a thoughtful response from one golf course groomsman.

Tim Dagg, vice president of the Southern Nevada Golf Course Superintendents Association, writes that golf courses around the valley go to great lengths to conserve water.

Dagg says many courses have their own weather stations that monitor atmospheric conditions and high-tech irrigations systems that keep track of the moisture in the soil.

"Over-watering is of no benefit to healthy plant life, and with the cost of water in the valley, we would be fools to waste even one drop of this precious resource," Dagg says.

He adds that most golf courses are anxious to use reclaimed water (not suitable for drinking), which will be available from the Las Vegas Valley Water District in the middle of 2000.

"We wish it were available today," Dagg says. "But in the meantime, we in the turf grass industry are committed to using our small portion of the valley's precious water supply in the most prudent and efficient manner possible."