Chairez: GOP not throwing in towel for House race

Jeff Schweers

Monday, May 11, 1998 | 9:45 a.m.

The Roll Call report last week that Washington House Republicans already had conceded Nevada's District 1 congressional race to Democrat Shelley Berkley hit Don Chairez in the solar plexus.

"The story threw me for a jolt," said Chairez, who switched to the Republican Party to make a run for the seat that Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., is giving up to challenge U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat.

Chairez said the Roll Call story, published earlier this week, was written before he had met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other House Republicans about his candidacy.

"I met with Newt Gingrich (last) Sunday and that was not the impression I got," Chairez said. "I've been told that if I'm NOT in the race they'll write it off."

State Republican Party Executive Director Dan Burdish said the reports the GOP was writing off the race are greatly exaggerated because they were in town doing opposition research last week.

"I can't believe they're sending someone out here and paying for them to be here for a week when they're writing off that district," Burdish said.

Chairez said he was "waiting for some good karma" but expected to file May 13. He has already hired a campaign manager, Californian Carlo Rodriguez, who ran Mary Bono's special election to replace her husband, Sonny Bono, in Congress. Bob Dole's pollster Tony Fabrizio also is on the payroll.

Six other candidates by Friday had signed up to run for the Republican nomination, and more are expected to file this week, including University regent Nancy Price.

Both Price and Chairez are considered front runners because of their name recognition. State Republican officials say either one has a good chance against Berkley, a University regent who has raised at least $500,000 for her congressional bid.

Chairez said he was confident he could raise as much as his opponent.

Gary Gray, Berkley's campaign manager, has said Chairez' chronic party-switching could hurt him in the primary.

Chairez said the party-switching is an issue for only a minority of Democrats, who helped elect Ensign twice before.

Burdish said Chairez and Price have the highest name recognition out of the field of seven or eight expected to file before the May 18 deadline.

"Somebody can literally win that with 12 percent of the vote," Burdish said. "At that point name ID becomes everything.

Ensign has said he would not endorse any one to replace him because he is concentrating on his own campaign.

Burdish also noted that a purge by the Clark County Registrar of inactive names in the district brought the Republican deficit down from 31,000 to 25,000 votes.

"We just picked up 6,000 voters on the Democrats," Burdish said.

In other districts that would be a significant gap, but Burdish noted that even with the AFL-CIO funneling $3 million against Ensign in 1996, he still beat state Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, with 51 percent of the vote.

"It's a very crossover vote in this state," Burdish said.