Columnist Jon Ralston: Desperation down the stretch

Friday, Oct. 18, 2002 | 6:06 a.m.

With just over a fortnight to go and early voting commencing this weekend, underdogs are sniffing for anything to get traction. Last week varying levels of desperation were on display by three candidates trying to throw, to switch metaphors, a Hail Mary pass as their opponents solidified leads.

The most obvious panic move came from congressional hopeful Dario Herrera, who has fallen behind by double digits (at least three polls last week put the race there). Herrera announced at a news conference that he would only run positive ads for the rest of the campaign and that he had asked the state party folks to suspend their attack spots on Jon Porter. This came against the backdrop of Herrera unveiling a commercial featuring him walking with Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is seen lecturing Herrera (no endorsement, just a lecture) that he should be positive.

This would be laughable were it not so sad, this race being a page out of the "what might have been" files. What Herrera didn't say is that he's out of money, the national Democratic folks are starting to unfurl their white flag and this is all he has left.

So all Herrera has left is a pathetic grasping onto Mayor Bobblehead's coattails and a dubious, propitious epiphany about negative ads, after he and the party have been airing them for months.

A quick comment about so-called negative campaigning. The phrase has lost any meaning since the infamous "daisy spot" from the 1964 presidential contest, when a countdown to nuclear Armageddon is contrasted with a little girl counting flower petals. Voters mewl about the ads, but they respond to them. And nothing in this CD3 race compares to that ad against Barry Goldwater nearly 40 years ago or many political tactics before and after.

Yes, the volume has been obnoxious. But beyond the usual hyperbole and distortions -- and neither has been especially excessive -- it's been standard stuff. And for all those Democratic "leaders" standing by Herrera at a Friday news conference decrying negative ads as they acted suitably outraged, I have a question: Why weren't they calling for Democrats John Hunt and Erin Kenny to pull their negative ads, if this were some deeply held principle?

It's not -- it's desperation, aided and abetted by some good party soldiers and a Mayor Bobblehead intoxicated by his own popularity. So how can Herrera make up what seems like an insurmountable deficit? He must be seen as Mr. Positive, credited by voters for pulling the ads. Porter must crumble in the debates -- there's one on Channel 8 tonight at 5:30. And the Democratic ground game will have to be as devastating as Sherman razing Atlanta. He needs all of that -- and maybe more.

As for Hunt and Kenny, their campaigns, too, have that same odor wafting from their headquarters. Hunt is the closest of the three, probably down by just under double-digits or a little more statewide. But his use of a Carson City couple who blame opponent Brian Sandoval for almost botching their adoption is a spot that will be considered either incredibly effective or incredibly low -- or both -- depending on the race's ultimate outcome.

This is the same race where a third party, Vestin Mortgage's Mike Shustek, has interceded on behalf of Hunt in a desperate attempt to boost the Democrat. Shustek has bought signs for Hunt (telling to see "Paid for by Vestin" on those Hunt signs, isn't it?) and has even paid for mail pieces. Hunt's beneficent benefactor even has invoked the man he hired to pitch his company, Joe Namath, telling people as Broadway Joe did for the Jets in '69 that he is guaranteeing a Hunt victory in November.

How could Hunt do it? If the adoption ad resonates, if the Democratic machine picks him up and if he has enough money to keep a solid buy up, he has a chance.

Kenny, who is down double digits statewide in the lieutenant governor's race but might have made some progress with her huge TV buy, has adopted a different kind of desperation plan. Call it the kitchen sink approach.

Realizing she would be down by a huge margin to an innocuous incumbent in an office no one cares about, Kenny's strategy all along was to count on help from labor's grass-roots effort and eviscerate Hunt on TV with ads about Nevada Power and Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt's advocacy as a restaurateur for pro-business stances that Kenny hopes will become wedge issues.

It's a long shot, but her salvos clearly have infuriated Hunt, who has seemed as if she wanted to clock Kenny in their debates. How could Kenny pull off the upset? Yes, that Democratic turnout effort must be spectacular, her negative ads must have an impact and she has to draw some votes in Washoe County.

To borrow from Francis Ford Coppola, I don't love the smell of desperation in the air; it smells like defeat. And all you are seeing now is a group of candidates trying to terminate their terminal situations, with extreme measures, to prevent an apocalypse on Nov. 5.