Columnist Jon Ralston: ‘Tis the season to send political message

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000 | 9:55 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or through e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Most people are coasting this week, enjoying the afterglow of Christmas and anticipating a celebration of the New Year. But Nevada's two most powerful Republican elected officials don't have that luxury and must answer questions about whether to give out belated holiday gifts and what will be on their New Year's resolution lists.

For Gov. Kenny Guinn, the answer will help define the second half of his first term and the 2001 Legislature. For Sen.-elect John Ensign, it will be a harbinger of two things: how much he has been captured or captivated by his colleague, Harry Reid, and how seriously he will take one of the most important aspects of his job, which is making federal appointments.

Let's take Guinn first. The real question confronting the former Clark County schools superintendent as he prepares for his second session is how he will reconcile his obvious desire to increase education funding with the political imperative to look, well, like a fiscally conservative Republican governor.

His list of New Year's resolutions surely includes one to get state employees and university workers more money. But will Guinn, using the canard of collective bargaining for teachers guaranteeing them pay boosts, deprive them of the same raises?

Some of his core constituency groups, and some key GOP legislators, revile the state teachers union because they perceive the leadership as concerned not for the betterment of children but for the betterment of their own bank accounts. Too often, raises for teachers have been paramount; but Guinn also believes that teachers aren't paid enough and there are statistics to back him up just as there are numbers that indicate otherwise. He can make the case either way he wants. But which way does he want to?

"We have to do something about teacher salaries," Guinn told the Sun recently. But how? And what will he do besides pass the buck to the districts? The teacher salary question is the tip of the fiscal iceberg for Guinn. What lies beneath is the practical impossibility of funding the budget the way it has been done in the past and political tightrope he is walking to ensure his '02 re-election and still address the taxing question of increased revenues and spreading the burden.

At the top of his New Year's list should be this: Resolved in 2001 -- I will be honest and forthright (and somewhat brief and cogent) in my State of the State about what I want to do with the state's tax structure.

Ensign has a different kind of decision -- or series of decisions -- to make after the New Year that will be the first signal about what kind of senator he will be. He must choose a couple of federal judges as well as deciding what to do about Reid's appointees for U.S. marshal (Jose Troncoso) and U.S. attorney (Kathryn Landreth).

Sources say Reid has been very hands-off so far as Ensign has begun to deliberate these appointments. But while Ensign would never appoint anyone openly hostile to Reid -- is there really anyone who doesn't like the senior senator? -- Reid surely will not be able to control his meddling reflex.

Ensign undoubtedly will try to display his independence and will almost certainly replace Landreth, who is well-regarded in some circles but is seen by some in the legal community as having done too little with the job.

Troncoso might be a different matter, though, because he is the state's first Hispanic marshal. My guess is in the crass ethnic politics of appointments, Ensign could only replace Troncoso with another Hispanic.

Ensign probably will look for federal judge appointments outside of the usual slate of candidates, including Reid's choice of Linda Riegle, who was scotched by the molasses-like Senate confirmation process. Remember that most of the lawyers who would be judges are not Ensign cronies -- in fact, most of them were on the contribution report of his opponent, Ed Bernstein.

Ensign is preparing to put together an informal vetting team to winnow prospective candidates. But he is in no rush. That's because his New Year's list probably begins thusly: Resolved in 2001 -- Make my first significant act as a senator to send a message that I will not repay political favors or pander to ethnic groups by giving away lifetime appointments on the federal bench.

Now that could be a harder promise to keep than losing 15 pounds by next Christmas.