Del Papa “very, very strongly” considering U.S. Senate bid

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, March 31, 1999 | 9:02 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, back from Washington, D.C., meetings with national Democratic Party figures, said Tuesday she's "very, very strongly" considering a bid for the U.S. Senate.

Del Papa, whose meetings included dinner with Joe Hansen, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said she left the nation's capital with "lots of offers of support."

She also visited with the committee chairman, Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., and had meetings with Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both Nevada Democrats.

"I'm still concerned about the high cost of campaigning and the amount of time it would take - but I'm looking at this race very, very strongly," she said. "I'm very seriously leaning in this direction."

Del Papa emerged as the leading Democratic possibility for the Senate seat that Bryan is vacating after former Democratic Gov. Bob Miller recently said he wasn't interested in seeking the office.

Michael Tucker, a spokesman for the DSCC, has said the committee sees Del Papa as the front-runner for the party's nomination.

He said a Democratic poll shows Del Papa in a toss-up race against former Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., with 41 percent to Ensign's 45 percent. The poll also showed Del Papa leading Ensign in favorability and job performance.

"If a Democratic poll shows us up, that's good," said Ensign, who announced for the race after his narrow loss to Reid last year. "They're trying to draft her to run."

In addition to the Democrats' poll, a DSCC memo says Del Papa needs strong support from organized labor to win. That could be tough given Del Papa's past history with labor - including an endorsement by the State of Nevada Employees Association for her Republican opponent in her 1998 re-election battle.

However, part of the DSCC strategy would be to sway Nevada labor groups by arguing that Del Papa would have a better record in Congress on labor issues than Ensign.

Del Papa was in Washington last week for the annual conference of state attorneys general, but left time for meetings with key Democrats.