Columnist Jon Ralston: James in odd quest for power

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 3:52 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the public affairs program "Face to Face" on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the Ralston Report. His column for the Sun appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be

THE BEST ASPECT of the pundit business is not what you might expect.

It's not the opportunity to watch scintillating public policy debates.

Or to hobnob with the political elite. Or to pontificate while perched high inside the ivory tower.

No, what makes this business so consistently invigorating is the unpredictability of it all, the truly mercurial nature of the political world. Granted, many of the names don't change, many of the issues are immutable. But it's like that one seven-iron you leave five feet from the cup after spraying the ball all over the place: Something unforeseen always happens to bring you back for more.

A case in point is the strange story of state Senate Judiciary Chairman Mark James. James, who struts in the foreground of the Carson City stage every session, had a particularly spectacular 120 days this year. His advocacy for a death penalty moratorium, his push for a Sunshine in Litigation measure and especially his insistence on finding more money for education made him a darling of the media and various special interests and a nagging pain for some of his inert colleagues and Gov. Kenny Guinn.

But no matter whether you thought he was being especially brave or surprisingly stupid, most observers agreed: This was a prelude to James' bid for attorney general.

Yes, some snickered that appearing to be against the death penalty (he's not actually) and advocating higher taxes (he did, actually) was a bizarre platform from which to launch a statewide career. Why else, though, would he be grabbing even more than his usual share of headlines?

But, sources report, the conventional wisdom is wrong. James decided late in the session that the office across Carson Street where Frankie Sue Del Papa works is not where he wants to be. In fact, this session persuaded James that he is exactly where he wants to be, and he plans to seek re-election.

His calculus is simple: It's a choice between being in the thick of the policy debate and being an administrative bureaucrat, a choice between being in the process and out of the process.

James, who is 41, may be wrong to believe that being in the Legislature as opposed to being an important statewide officeholder is the best place to prepare for a bid for governor or U.S. Senate. But he would not be running again if part of his master plan did not include becoming the upper house leader, a position that surely will come South once Bill Raggio retires, either during the interim or after next session. James, who hopes to act as Raggio's southern regent during the upcoming campaign season, could set up an interesting power struggle should another member of the GOP caucus (Ann O'Connell?) covet Raggio's scepter.

That's especially true because James has not always been a favorite of his colleagues, earning a reputation as a self-interested grandstander whose sometimes prickly arrogance (hence the sardonic moniker, "King James") and intermittently reckless water-carrying (the flaps over trying to nullify the multimillion-dollar Tailhook verdict and his effort to help lobbyist Harvey Whittemore and spirit man Larry Ruvo use the Legislature to settle a Lake Tahoe property dispute) infuriated those with equal egos but often with lesser abilities.

James' decision will have a dramatic impact on the Campaign '02 chessboard, too. Republicans had been counting on him as a formidable attorney general candidate, whether or not Del Papa seeks a fourth term. (Most insiders expect her not to run, but there is that unpredictability factor.)

So what do the Republicans do for a candidate now? My guess is that Gaming Commission Chairman Brian Sandoval will take a serious look at the race.

Should Del Papa not run, the Democrats are wanting. Some have speculated that Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley might get in. But my guess is that she eventually would reach the same conclusion as James: Why give up a safe Assembly seat and one of the most powerful posts in Carson City for what might be a quixotic run for attorney general?

Buckley, who has jousted with James and relishes a good fight, actually might be on a parallel career track to the senator, with their respective roads intersecting someday. After Anointment II is consummated next year, with Guinn's re-election all but assured, the two most talked-about candidates in the 2006 governor's race are Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson (whether he's a Democrat or a Republican).

But has anyone ever thought that if those folks decide not to run that a James-Buckley contest might be the gubernatorial matchup in 2006? Now that's a race I'd pay to see.

Actually, considering this job I have in the wonderfully protean political arena, it's a race I'd get paid to see.