Columnist Benjamin Grove: In Congress, three heads are better than two

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Nov. 1, 2002 | 5:08 a.m.

ON TUESDAY Nevada's representation in Congress will swell by 50 percent when voters elect three members to the U.S. House. Thanks to the 2000 census and the magic of reapportionment, Nevada is among the states gaining a seat in the next Congress.

But you shrug. You're thinking, "So what? Nevada has three. California has 53!"

True.

But here's another way to look at it: Three is better than two. A lot better.

Just ask Jim Santini. He was the last individual to represent Nevada when the state only had one House seat, up until the 1982 election.

Santini ran himself ragged trying to represent urban and rural Nevada and the state's diverse industries. He split his time between scrambling around Capitol Hill and winging around Nevada, sometimes on sputtering three-seat planes. The Oct. 25 death of Sen. Paul Wellstone was chilling news for Santini, who made three emergency landings in his career.

"I stretched myself as far as I could go," said Santini, 65, now a tourism industry lobbyist in Washington. "Nevada residents will get a better shake with three."

Sure, there is little denying that Nevada will always be a small fish in a big pond in Washington, despite explosive growth. California probably won't even notice when it picks up an additional seat this year. Texas will have 32 seats; New York 29; Florida 25.

All told, 33 states will have more representation than Nevada, including Kansas and Mississippi with four House seats each. Even Connecticut, which lost a seat this year and is geographically one-twentieth the size of Nevada, still has five seats. Nevada is just now catching up to Nebraska with three.

But there are practical advantages to gaining even one representative.

"Politics in Washington is the same as politics outside Washington," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. "You always count your votes. And three helps Nevada more than two, just like two helped more than one."

Retired Republican Rep. Barbara Vucanovich understands that better than anyone. In 1982 she was elected the first person to serve in Nevada's new second seat. Ultimately, she helped raise Nevada's political clout on Capitol Hill, even if it was incremental. It was never an easy job.

Vucanovich, 81, remembers standing in a line of freshman lawmakers during her first week, one among the multitude, waiting to draw lots for office space. She drew 69.

"The good offices had been picked in the first 68 people so I ended up on the fifth floor of Cannon (Office Building), which was fine," Vucanovich said, "but it was a long way from the House floor."

In a bid to keep an eye on Nevada land issues, Vucanovich quickly got into a spat with another freshman lawmaker -- John McCain of Arizona -- over an empty seat on the House Interior (now Resources) Committee. ("He always wants everything his way," Vucanovich said, adding that she is still fond of McCain.) House leaders ultimately added a seat to the panel so both could serve, Vucanovich said.

From her perch, Vucanovich helped shape legislation that affected the ranchers, miners and developers of her mostly rural district. Meanwhile Nevada's other House member, Democrat Harry Reid (now the powerful senator) tended to the needs of Las Vegas.

It was a division of labor that has served the state well.

So while Nevada will never direct the show in Congress, a third representative is significant, said Guy Rocha, Nevada archivist and historian.

"It doesn't make us a California or New York," Rocha said. "It takes us up one more rung. It's a gradual change. The state is on its way to showing that Nevada is not among the smallest states in the Union anymore."