Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Richard is coming home

Friday, Jan. 5, 2001 | 9:45 a.m.

"You are among the first people I'm calling to tell that my name won't be on the ballot next year." It was the voice of Sen. Richard Bryan in 1999 as he told me that he had decided to come home. I told him it didn't please me, but his decision was easily understood. "I knew you would understand my feelings because of your own past decisions," he replied.

At the time of the phone call there was no way to predict that Bryan's decision would result in a 50-50 tie in the U.S. Senate rather than a 51-49 Democrat majority. What I did know was that the senator was sincere about returning to the Silver State and wouldn't be hanging around Washington, D.C., as a special interest lobbyist like so many others still on the banks of the Potomac.

After hanging up the phone my thoughts went back to 1973 when our senior senator, Alan Bible, invited former Gov. Grant Sawyer and me to his home at Lake Tahoe. He told us that in a few months he would announce that his name wouldn't be on our ballots in 1974. Bible suggested that one of us should seek his seat and showed poll numbers that favored possible success.

It was my opinion that Sawyer, a former two-term governor with a national reputation, should be the candidate. Grant was pleased with private life in Las Vegas and said thanks, but no thanks. That dropped it into my lap, but I was more inclined to seek a second term as governor. Which I did.

Lt. Gov. Harry Reid, out of a sense of duty, picked up the banner and came within a few hundred votes of beating another former governor, Paul Laxalt. From his position in the Senate, Laxalt was instrumental in helping his friend Ronald Reagan enter the White House six years later.

Bible, a highly respected senator and national legislator, returned home to Nevada where he lived his remaining days. He was a model for scholars and budding politicians who looked for an example of good government leadership.

The late Grant Sawyer continued in private life as a successful attorney and Democratic Party leader. His voice was loud and clear when challenging any outside threat to our state. The nuclear power moguls found him a tough adversary as they attempted to dump deadly waste on Nevada.

I haven't discussed Bryan's future with him, but I do see him playing an active role in protecting the interests of Nevada and also practicing some of his many political skills. He has been in several public offices for almost 35 years and during that time only lost one political race. Not a bad record for a healthy and active man who knows that some fights, such as nuke waste, are far from over. Look for him to continue these fights from his new position in private life.

Political pundits will continue to ask: What if the new U.S. Senate had a 51-49 Democrat majority? What if Sen. Paul Laxalt hadn't tired of the Senate and became a high-powered Washington lawyer? What if Sawyer, instead of Laxalt, had gone to the Senate in 1974? What if Reid, now a Senate leader, had given up politics after a narrow defeat in 1974?

Dealing with reality, we will step aside and allow the political experts, who play quiz games, to supply these answers. All we know for certain is that Richard Bryan is on his way home.