Friday, Feb. 6, 2004 | 4:45 a.m.
Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the Ralston Report. He can be reached at (702) 870-7997 or at [email protected].
WEEKEND EDITION
Feb. 7 - 8, 2004
IN THE MIDDLE of next month, seven of the top-tier Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate are scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas for a massive fund-raiser.
The unprecedented event is expected to raise an aggregate of $200,000 for the effort to increase the GOP's slim lead in the Club of 100 -- do the math and you can see each contender will pocket a significant check.
The March shindig is being arranged by none other than Nevada Sen. John Ensign, signaling a new phase of his capital career and, he hopes, putting him on the path to a leadership position by next year. The most likely slot would be the GOP conference vice-chairman or even the chairman of the group that is charged with putting a public face on Republican policy initiatives -- a perfect job for Ensign who was recently described by Congressional Quarterly as having a "mane of silver hair (that) looks like a senatorial coif from central casting."
This is nothing short of a quantum leap for the state's junior senator, who has mostly garnered attention for his athletic exploits in intramural, nonpolitical Capitol Hill games, has been relegated to the lesser half of the senatorial Siamese twin known as Harry Ensign and is so unknown in D.C. that The Washington Post recently ran a front-page picture it identified as Ensign, but it was instead a photo of Gov. Kenny Guinn. John who?
It has been hard for some, even in his own party and especially with his refusal to quell rumblings he might want to run for governor, to take him seriously as a senator. And Ensign's closeness to Harry Reid and refusal to beat the bushes for an opponent to his Democratic counterpart this year has frustrated and infuriated local and national Republicans.
That, if Ensign has his way, is all about to change. Like Reid on the other side, Ensign quietly has been gaining the confidence of his colleagues and nothing begins beautiful friendships in the Senate like coming up with some campaign cash. Ensign also has created a provocative dynamic over the last few months as he sets his sights on becoming one of a half-dozen senators on the GOP leadership team by re-establishing his fiscal conservative bonafides and reputation as a conservative firebrand while also taking some high-profile stands against the president and his own party's bosses.
No matter what happens, recent events indicate that just over halfway into his first term, Ensign has found his senatorial sea legs and hopes to embark on a voyage from obscurity into the limelight, using his combination of youth and exuberance to establish himself as a national GOP star. Whether Ensign shines or goes supernova will depend on a variety of factors, including his ability to focus on the task at hand, his relationships with leaders and a White House he has recently opposed and, yes, his fundraising prowess during Campaign '04.
The list of folks slated to arrive here next month is impressive. Those on the list to be the beneficiaries of Ensign's fund-raising facility are: Washington's George Nethercutt, Florida's Mel Martinez, Oklahoma's Kirk Humphreys, North Carolina's Richard Burr, South Carolina's Jim DeMint, Louisiana's David Vitter and South Dakota's John Thune.
The inclusion of Thune is freighted with irony, especially considering Ensign's friendship with Reid. If Thune defeats Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Reid is the presumptive heir to the minority leader's spot, so Ensign actually could argue that his efforts will help the senior senator and, by extension, the state. I'm sure Reid is terribly upset that Ensign is boosting the chances of Thune against his good friend, the minority leader. I just hope the relationship can survive the strain.
No matter how much Ensign raises this year for his colleagues, he is no lock for a leadership post. As Reid can tell him (and probably has), being a team player counts for a lot in this exclusive club. And recently, Ensign has not been part of either President Bush's or Majority Leader Bill Frist's team.
On the energy bill, which Frist hoped to revive, Ensign just said no. On various spending initiatives, which the GOP backed, Ensign just said no. And, most notably, as the president was crowing in Las Vegas about his Medicare reform, Ensign was in D.C. just saying no.
That kind of maverick behavior won't win him many friends in the long run. But his prescience on the Medicare funding underestimation and his willingness to speak out on squashing France's attempt to get a piece of the post-war Iraq rebuilding action, first snubbed and then embraced by the administration, have put him in the spotlight.
His planned senatorial activism also may put to rest the continual, percolating whispers of a possible gubernatorial bid. Ensign clearly has not squelched all the talk and it doesn't hurt him on the fundraising front. But if he becomes a Senate leader, that chatter should cease.
And Ensign finally may be able to justify his raison d'etre when he first ran for the Senate against Reid, that the state needed a voice in the Republican caucus. Up until now, he has been barely a peep. But if his best-laid plans stay on track, a year from now he may emerge from the shadow of Harry Ensign and make a name for himself.
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