Book says Jones rejected job bait

Friday, Sept. 22, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones was offered the coveted post of Nevada Gaming Commission chairwoman if she would stay out of the race for governor in 1998, a new book asserts.

Political analyst Jon Ralston, in a book released this week, says that the man behind Gov. Kenny Guinn's election, longtime political mover and shaker Sig Rogich, sought to eliminate -- through the offer of the high-profile state job -- the one Democrat who had a chance to defeat the Republican first-time office-seeker.

Rogich denied that he offered Jones a job. "Jon gives me much too much credit," Rogich said. They were just discussing Jones' future during one of several coffee chats he had with her months before she announced her candidacy for governor, he said.

Ralston, who writes a column for the Sun and "The Ralston Report" political newsletter, said "The Anointed One: An Inside Look at Nevada Politics," his first book, deals more with the people behind the scenes than the politicians.

"The book examines how Kenny Guinn was anointed as governor three years before he ran," Ralston said. "It is about how the process is fairly unchangeable. The people involved are talented and ruthless. They present a good public image but behind the scenes they do almost whatever it takes to get their candidates elected."

The meeting with Jones is a case in point.

"After Frankie Sue Del Papa dropped out of the race in October 1997, it was widely viewed that Mayor Jones was the only Democrat who had a chance," said Ralston, whose paperback book was published by Huntington Press of Las Vegas and retails for $17.95.

"Sig offered her the post of Gaming Commission chairman if she dropped out. In effect, she decided not to run, but months later changed her mind and ran. And although Jones was the better communicator and more skillful than Guinn, the way the political system is set up, she never really had a chance to win."

The meeting, Ralston writes, occurred at the Keuken Dutch, a restaurant not far from Rogich's Spanish Trails' home.

"Rogich had a pitch to make to the mayor," Ralston writes. "Jones was so talented that Guinn would want her to be part of his administration. She could, if she so desired, have the chairmanship of the state Gaming Commission. It was clear quid pro quo -- stay out and we'll take care of you."

Rogich said Guinn was not informed about his meetings with Jones, and he would not characterize what they talked about as a job offer.

"There was no offer made -- we had an iron-clad rule to not promise jobs to anyone," Rogich said. "I talked with her (Jones) about her life after she was mayor. She was considering jobs like going to Washington (D.C.) to be a lobbyist.

"There was no quid pro quo. She was not a candidate then. Jon has his interpretation of what happened, and we have ours."

As for the election, in which Guinn won in a landslide, Rogich said, despite what political consultants like him do, "ultimately it comes down to a good candidate, and he (Guinn) was a great, tireless candidate."

Jones, now an executive for Harrah's gaming company, said of her meetings with Rogich, "we talked about a lot of things. I knew the Kenny Guinn team did not want me to run for governor, but if I had based my decision (to run or not to run) on something that was said over a cup of coffee, I would have to have been either naive or foolish."

Jones said she agrees with Ralston's assessment that the big races are won by those who have the power brokers behind them: "That's why people don't get involved in elections -- they feel their vote doesn't count. However, once in a while there is a surprise and that gets some people energized for a while.

"If I had started my campaign 12 to 14 months earlier, I feel it would have been a different story."

Guinn, through a spokesman, said: "I have no intention of spending time away from the important business of the state commenting on the various and often exaggerated tales associated with a hard-fought campaign."

Ralston is a veteran Nevada newspaperman, who worked 15 years as a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and in 1992 started his biweekly newsletter that has become influential in state political circles.

Since joining Greenspun Media Group, which like the Sun is owned by the Greenspun family, in late 1999, Ralston has started a daily Internet political newsletter called "Flash" and a weekly television version of The Ralston Report, which airs on Las Vegas One, Cox cable channels 1 and 39.