Heller won’t challenge Reid, Ziser still planning campaign

Kirsten Searer

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

Secretary of State Dean Heller has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, meaning that Richard Ziser could be the last major Republican figure planning a run against Sen. Harry Reid.

"He is definitely not running," said Steve George, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office.

Heller said several weeks ago that one of the factors working against his possible challenge of Reid was the Democratic senator's effort to raise $10 million for the race in November.

Still, Republican Party chairwoman Lia Roberts said the Republican ticket may not be decided yet. She pointed out that the date when candidates must file their intention to run for the office is in May, and that another strong candidate might step up sometime in the next month. She would not say who the Republican Party is wooing.

"Of course we are still looking and encouraging other people to take a look at it," she said.

"I'm sorry that Dean (Heller) is not going to make this step, but I'm sure he has very good reasons of his own," Roberts said.

Steve Wark, a campaign consultant for Ziser, said his candidate already is operating like the presumptive Republican nominee and has received about $500,000 in commitments from donors in the past three weeks.

Ziser, who ran the initiative drive to ban gay marriage in Nevada, attended a meeting in Los Angeles last Saturday with major Republican donors who are looking to throw money into his race and into the effort by Republican John Phung to challenge U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Donors see similarities between the politics of Nevada and South Dakota and would love to beat Reid and Daschle, who are the top two Democrats in the Senate, Wark said.

Ziser's campaign, Wark said, "is going very well, in spite of rumors of other people getting in."