Reid’s influence grows

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

The presidential election may be in doubt, but strong Democratic gains in the Senate have given Nevada Sen. Harry Reid more influence on Capitol Hill.

"For us the real victory has been in Senate," said Reid, the Senate's whip and assistant minority leader.

Democrats picked up three seats, reducing the 54-46 Republican majority to 50-49. One seat in Washington today remains too close to call, which gives the Democrats a chance for a 50-50 deadlock.

Both parties anxiously are awaiting the outcome of the vote in Florida, which will decide whether George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore becomes president. Bush's lead has been trimmed to less than 1,000 votes during a statewide recount, but absentee ballots overseas have yet to be counted.

Reid said he was pessimistic about Gore's chances of picking up enough votes to prevail in Florida because the outstanding absentee ballots, many coming from military men and women, are likely to favor Bush.

"If Bush gets elected, the only two Democrats who will have any say in this town are Harry Reid and Minority Leader Tom Daschle," one Capitol Hill insider said. "Harry is going to be one of the two most influential Democrats in Washington.

"The Senate is run through compromise. Nothing is done without input from the minority party. As such, the only two Democrats who will be standing between the full enactment of the Republican agenda will be Reid and Daschle."

Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, said the Democratic gains in the Senate will help Reid shape legislation on Capitol Hill.

"It gives him more clout behind the scenes," Bible said, adding the extra muscle will benefit the casino industry and Nevada.

Reid's stepped-up influence also could mean federal help for much-needed transportation projects in fast-growing Nevada.

His seniority now makes him the ranking member of the important Environment and Publics Works Committee, which sets the formulas for the amount of highway funds states receive.

"Southern Nevada ought to draw up its wish list now," the congressional source said. "It's going to mean hundreds of millions of dollars in highway projects for the state."

Reid said there was a small chance that Democrats could gain control of the Senate if a 50-50 split were to occur and Bush were to win the presidency.

He said there was talk among Democrats of organizing the Senate the first week in January before Dick Cheney would be sworn in as vice president. Gore conceivably could participate in that vote and swing the top leadership positions in favor of the Democrats.

Reid, however, said that scenario was unlikely to play out.

But he added that if there was a 50-50 split, Democrats would push for an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on the committees, which would further enhance the power of his party.

Gaming strategists, meanwhile, said they were elated with Reid's latest rise in power in Washington.

"I think you have to recognize the fact that Harry Reid was important before this election," said Republican consultant Sig Rogich, a Bush supporter who has several gaming clients. "He's even more important now."

Added Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the Washington-based American Gaming Association: "I don't think that Nevada has fully appreciated the position that Harry Reid has obtained.

"We have had powerful senators in the past, Pat McCarran and Paul Laxalt, but we have never had anyone from Nevada obtain the strategic position of power that Harry Reid holds."

Retiring Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., a longtime Reid friend, said his colleague has done a "suburb job" of managing the floor of the Senate for the Democrats.

"In my time, I've seen three Democratic whips and Harry is by far in my judgment the most effective," Bryan said. "He spends an enormous amount of time at it."

Fahrenkopf said the election of Republican John Ensign, who is succeeding Bryan, also will help Nevada and the casino industry as it battles anti-gaming legislation in Congress.

Ensign's election now gives Nevada a voice in both parties in both houses, Fahrenkopf said.

Both Nevada House incumbents, Republican Jim Gibbons and Democrat Shelley Berkley, were re-elected.

With Bryan's departure, however, Nevada likely will lose his coveted seat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, a tax-writing panel that has been important to the casino industry in the past.

Rogich, who worked as a White House aide for Bush's father, predicted that Ensign would become a "significant part" of the new Bush administration should the Republican win the presidential race.

"I think he's a young freshman senator with a lot of vitality," Rogich said. "He'll develop a rapport with George Bush.

Rogich said Republican Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn also would have Bush's ear, which would be important in the battle against storing high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.

"The fate of nuclear waste in Nevada may lie exclusively in their hands," former Democratic Gov. Bob Miller said.

"We'll have to hope that Sen. Ensign and Gov. Guinn are able to convince Bush to veto interim storage, just as Reid, Bryan and myself were able to convince President Clinton."

Guinn said he was up to the task.

"I'm going to work with (Bush) just like our past Democratic representatives worked with the Democratic president, Guinn said. "We're going to continue along the same trail."

Democrats are worried that a Bush presidency would be a major setback in the fight.

"We're in a deep pile of hurt on the nuclear waste issue if Bush gets in," Reid said.

Republicans contend Bush's position on interim storage is the same as Gore's, but Democrats believe a Republican-controlled Congress would be poised to send the high-level waste here with Bush in the White House.

Guinn said Bush told him "face-to-face" that he would veto any legislation that would make Nevada an interim site and that he was confident Bush would live up to that pledge.

"I think he has the integrity to follow up on his word," Guinn said. "I'm not worried about it."

Reid said he and Bryan are "extremely disappointed" that Nevadans did not vote to give Gore the state's four electoral votes. Bush won the state by a 49.5 to 46 percent margin, despite never once visiting Las Vegas.

"Whatever we lost was a terrible disappointment," he said. "The people of Nevada did not believe we were going to get nuclear waste with Bush. They didn't believe what Richard Bryan and I said."

Reid said he also felt badly that Democrats lost a seat to the Republicans in Nevada while being so close to regaining control of the Senate. But he said he expects to work closely with Ensign on the Hill.

Should Gore win the presidency, meanwhile, the Democrats would have no chance of achieving a 50-50 split in the Senate. Gore's running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., would have to resign, and a replacement would be named by that state's Republican governor.

The best Democrats could hope for in that scenario is a 51-49 Republican majority.

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