Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997 | 10:39 a.m.
FACING HEAVY pressure from Democrats, including the White House, to run for governor, Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones is starting to look like a serious candidate.
On Monday, Vice President Al Gore telephoned Jones to promise her White House backing if she runs.
Last week, in a face-to-face meeting in Las Vegas, Gov. Bob Miller urged Jones to enter the race against his good friend, Republican businessman Kenny Guinn.
Prior to that, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, who dropped out of the race because she couldn't match Guinn's massive war chest, told the mayor she would campaign for her, and even debate Guinn in Northern Nevada, where Jones isn't as well known.
Other Democratic heavyweights, such as Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, also have talked to Jones about running.
Miller, who defeated Jones by a wide margin in the 1994 Democratic primary, says Jones simply is the party's best hope of defeating Guinn.
"She's got the best chance of any of the Democratic candidates," Miller says.
Jones says she hasn't decided, but she acknowledges the pressure to run has been tremendous.
She says it would be embarrassing to the state if Democrats can't field a candidate against Guinn.
"It doesn't look good for Nevada when you hold a governor's election and nobody comes out to vote," she says.
Knowing the White House is eying the race, Jones adds, also is weighing heavy on her mind.
She says Gore told her the White House would do whatever it could to help her campaign.
Jones suggested to Gore that one way to help the Democrats would be for the president to appoint Miller ambassador to Mexico and let him turn the state over to Republican Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren.
Jones and other Democrats believe Hammargren is too eccentric to be taken seriously as the state's chief executive.
Having Hammargren in the governor's mansion for a while could backfire on the Republicans and rub off on Guinn's campaign, Jones says.
Jones says she's listening to everybody who's urging her to run, and she'll make a decision within the next couple of weeks.
"The real issue is my family," she explains. "I've got a real nice family environment right now, and I'm not sure I want this to impact it."
Still, an announcement that she's running just before Nov. 14, when President Clinton comes to town to promote women in politics, would be an ideal time.
Surely, the president would jump at a chance to pump up the political career of a well-known Las Vegas woman.
Any decision Jones makes, however, will have to be based on reason, not ego.
She'll have to face the reality of running against a well-financed Republican who has some of the top Democratic fund-raisers on his team.
Dr. Elias Ghanem and attorneys Frank Schreck and Mike Sloan, who have a track record of backing successful Democrats, including Miller, all are helping Guinn.
Guinn expects to have $2 million in his campaign coffers by the end of the year, a fact that persuaded Del Papa to withdraw from the race.
And Guinn's war chest keeps growing.
On the day Clinton comes to town, Guinn is holding his first big fund-raising event, a $500-a-person barbecue at the Racquet Club near Blue Diamond Road and Interstate 15.
He's expecting 800 to 1,000 people, a turnout that would leave little doubt about the strength of his campaign.
Jones will have to think about that as the vice president, governor and other Democrats twist her arm.
Some may view the cigar craze as harmful to your health, but it's alive and well in Las Vegas.
Actor George Hamilton, lately of NBC's "Jenny" sitcom, is expected to be among the cigar lovers attending this year's second annual "Big Smoke Las Vegas Weekend" at Bally's.
Hamilton, who attended last year's Big Smoke, owns a nightclub and cigar shop at New York-New York, where local bigwigs come to relax and enjoy a smoke.
For a moderate price, the Big Smoke, sponsored by the New York-based Cigar Aficionado magazine, features a weekend of seminars and cigar tasting.
Cigar Aficionado, called "the hottest magazine in the '90s," often puts celebrities like Hamilton on its cover.
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