Columnist Jeff German: Bernstein draws closer to taking first step

Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999 | 9:27 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or 259-4067.

WITH DEMOCRATS now pinning their hopes on his candidacy, Ed Bernstein says he's 90 percent sure he'll run for the Senate in 2000.

How a campaign for public office will affect his comfortable family life remains his biggest obstacle.

"I'm absolutely focused on the personal issues -- what it means to move out of Las Vegas to Washington," the soft-spoken personal injury lawyer says. "I love this city, and I have a wonderful life here. It's a big change for me."

Bernstein says he hopes to make up his mind after meeting with President Clinton in Las Vegas on Friday. Clinton will headline a fund-raising luncheon for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at the Paris hotel-casino.

Bernstein plans to announce his decision before Vice President Al Gore's trip to Las Vegas on Oct. 11. Gore is holding a $1,000-a-person fund-raiser at Harrah's hotel-casino for his 2000 presidential campaign, backed by his good friend, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate's assistant Democratic leader.

Democrats, let down by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa earlier this month, now are looking to Bernstein in the race, which features a strong Republican candidate, former Rep. John Ensign, who already has raised more than $1.1 million.

During a recent trip to Washington, Bernstein received encouragement from White House political aides, national labor leaders and Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

He left the nation's capital excited about his chances of helping his party hold onto the seat being given up by retiring Sen. Richard Bryan.

But at the same time, Bernstein says he's trying to keep a level head while deciding whether to jump into the race. He's seeking advice from anyone willing to give it.

"I don't want to be influenced by the excitement of the moment," he says.

If he does run, Bernstein says he won't have access to as much wealth as Ensign, whose adoptive father, Mike Ensign, is a well-known casino industry leader.

"I don't have the kind of money people think I have," he says. "I'll have to dip into my nest egg."

And dip he will.

"I wouldn't feel comfortable asking people for money if I'm not prepared to spend my own," he says.

Ensign, meanwhile, wants to enlarge his campaign coffers nearly twofold by the end of the year.

His campaign manager, Mike Slanker, says he hopes Ensign will have $2 million in the bank before the new millennium.

Ensign, who came within a few hundred votes of defeating Reid in 1998, also expects to have most of his grass-roots organization put together by the new year, Slanker says. That job belongs to Steve Wark, who headed Gov. Kenny Guinn's celebrated grass-roots operation last year.

As for Bernstein, Slanker says, Ensign isn't even thinking about an opponent right now.

"We're running our race," he says. "At this point we don't know what Ed Bernstein stands for or even if he's going to be in the race."

National political figures in both parties, meanwhile, continue to tap into Nevada's gaming industry for campaign funds.

Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole was here Thursday for a fund-raiser attended by casino bigwigs, among them media-shy casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., picked up $600,000 during a visit here last month, and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, plans a Nov. 4 trip to Las Vegas to raise money for her Democratic Senate campaign in New York.

One key Republican, however, has yet to visit the state.

Efforts to persuade George W. Bush, the GOP presidential front-runner, to visit Lake Tahoe have fallen through. Instead, Bush's mother, ex-first lady Barbara Bush, will come to Las Vegas Oct. 13 to raise money for his campaign.

Within Republican circles there has been speculation that Bush has been reluctant to travel to Nevada because of the controversy over his anti-gambling remarks earlier this year.

Guinn, the Texas governor's campaign chairman here, says that's not true. Guinn predicts Bush will make his way to the state sooner than skeptics think.

Democrats, on the other hand, believe Bernstein will be a veteran on the Senate campaign trail by the time Bush cozies up to Nevadans.