Several candidates already eyeing new House seat

Lisa Snedeker

Saturday, Dec. 30, 2000 | 9:49 a.m.

A number of potential candidates already are considering running for Nevada's newest congressional seat even though the lines for the state's third district have yet to be decided and the winner won't take office until January 2003.

Nevada recorded the largest rate of population gain nationwide - 66.3 percent since 1990 - meaning it will pick up one seat in Congress, initial Census Bureau results released this week show.

"It's certainly something I'm considering," said Las Vegas personal injury attorney Ed Bernstein, a Democrat who lost a bid in November against Republican Senator-elect John Ensign. "For me, it's a decision based on how the congressional district is cut up."

Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera, also a Democrat, has already formed an exploratory committee of about 100 people to investigate a congressional bid.

"I first began thinking about it when I spoke at the Democratic convention (this year)," said the 27-year-old one-term state Assemblyman. "I've received vast support from prominent Democrats and Republicans."

The soon-to-be commission chairman said he's not concerned about how the new district lines will look.

"If I choose to run, it will be based on the issues that are important to Nevada, not the other people in the race or whether the district lines are drawn in a certain way," he said.

Federal law doesn't require House members to live in their districts.

Other Democrat contenders could include Rory Reid, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party and son of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, and state Assemblyman David Goldwater of Las Vegas.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Jon Porter of Henderson is the most likely front runner, especially if the new seat primarily encompasses Las Vegas and Clark County, said Ryan Erwin, executive director of the state's GOP party.

"It's going to depend a great deal on how that seat looks," Erwin said.

Porter lost to 1st District Rep. Shelley Berkley by about 8 percent in November.

If, however, each congressional district is split into a ribbon pattern up and down the state, candidates could include Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, Secretary of State Dean Heller, State Treasurer Brian Krolicki and Comptroller Kathy Augustine, Erwin said.

"We have lots of options," he said.

In Clark County, Erwin said other possibilities could include Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald and former 1st District candidates Jim Blockey and Esther Quisenberry.

Where the new district lines are drawn will be up to the Nevada Legislature, but it's a given the new seat will represent at least a portion of Clark County, the state's most populous area with an estimated 70 percent of the population.

The additional representation in Congress from Nevada and other Western states, including Arizona, California and Colorado, "brings a whole lot more attention to us," Bernstein said.

Nevada's delegation to Washington, D.C., which includes Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and 2nd District Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., thinks it will be helped by having more clout as it deals with such crucial issues as where to store the nation's nuclear waste and a proposed ban on college betting.