Columnist Jeff German: Nevada becoming battleground in national ethics fight

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 11:29 a.m.

IT SHOULDN'T COME as a surprise that Republicans are making ethics a leading issue in Campaign '98.

President Clinton, burdened by the sex scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, has given the GOP reason to take off on ethics in the general election.

Republicans believe Clinton's admission of an "improper" relationship with Lewinsky has made honesty and integrity in government a high priority of the voters.

Nowhere is the issue likely to play better than in Nevada.

This week the National Republican Congressional Committee kicked off a $37 million television blitz with an attack ad on Democratic Regent Shelley Berkley, the front-runner in the race for Congress here.

The ad accuses Berkley of urging her former employer, Las Vegas Sands Inc. Chairman Sheldon Adelson, to "buy politicians and judges."

Berkley was embarrassed in June when memos she wrote suggesting Adelson do favors for local politicians wound up in the hands of the media. Berkley apologized for her actions, but she suggested the memos were leaked by Adelson, a prominent GOP donor who opposes her bid for Congress.

It is no coincidence that Berkley's Republican opponent, former District Judge Don Chairez has developed the campaign slogan, "fairness, not favors." Chairez is being heavily backed by Adelson.

But the congressional race isn't the only one where ethics has become an issue.

Following his overwhelming primary victory Tuesday night, GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenny Guinn told his supporters he believes the voters are looking for candidates with "high ethical standards."

It was a swipe at the troubles of his Democratic opponent, Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who breezed through her own primary.

Jones has been hauled before the Nevada Ethics Commission on seven occasions in the past several years, but cleared each time.

The Ethics Commission will decide later this month whether she should face yet another complaint. Her longtime political nemesis, ex-City Councilman Steve Miller, is asking the panel to look into whether Jones used her office to bolster her gaming investments.

For Guinn, the timing is perfect, as he moves to exploit the ethics factor in his race with Jones.

To counter the GOP strategy, both Jones and Berkley expect to focus on issues affecting the quality of life for Nevadans. The goal is to persuade the voters there are more important reasons to consider when choosing a candidate.

Democrats are convinced the Republican campaign could backfire.

"People are tired of having their TV programing interrupted by negative and ugly political advertising," says Berkley spokesman Richard Urey. "We're comfortable letting the Republicans spend millions of dollars in a counter-productive way."

President Clinton's ethics, meanwhile, may come into play in the Senate race between Harry Reid and John Ensign.

Reid, the two-term Democratic incumbent, could have a tough time calling upon Clinton to come to Nevada to raise money for him while the president is under the threat of impeachment.

Ensign, a conservative Republican who is giving up his House seat to challenge Reid, already has hinted he'll have no qualms about capitalizing on Clinton's troubles.

Reid today begins airing a new ad that pokes fun at his "political enemies in Washington" for bashing him on television.

Standing in front of a giant target, Reid hits his Republican foes for running attack ads that deflect attention away from Nevada's "strong economy" during his tenure in Washington.

It's the first light-hearted attempt to neutralize the ethics issue.

Tuesday's primary has taught us whose polls to trust in the governor's race.

At the beginning of last month, Republican Kenny Guinn released a poll that showed him ahead of Aaron Russo in the Republican primary by 35 points.

Several days later, the Review-Journal came out with a poll that put the maverick Russo only seven points behind Guinn. Russo then started touting his own surveys that showed him ahead of Guinn.

On election day, Guinn won by 32 points.

When all was said and done, Russo, a Hollywood producer who ran an anti-establishment campaign, pulled in only 26 percent, the exact amount of discontented voters that billionaire Ross Perot attracted in the 1992 presidential race.

As it turned out, Russo spent $1 million dollars tapping into a block of voters he already had.

"He could have spent half that amount and gotten the same results," one Guinn strategist said.

True, but he probably wouldn't have had as much fun shaking up the establishment.