Columnist Jon Ralston: James leaves a sad legacy

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 4:39 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 ralston@vegas.com.

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March 27 - 28, 2004

Republican Mark James is anti-death penalty and pro-gay marriage. If only GOP primary voters knew that two years ago when he ran -- as irrelevant as those issues are to his elected job -- his retirement from politics might have been accelerated.

But James didn't talk about the former and dissembled about the latter, on the advice of consultants who thought such candor would be fatal, and he eked out a victory over the real conservative in the contest, Tim Cory. And now he is departing politics, suddenly afflicted with a desire to come clean, and he leaves a sad legacy.

Sad because of what might have been for him. Sad for what might have been for the commission. And sad, most of all, for what it says about politics, a place where the inhabitants are persuaded, especially during campaigns, that the truth will not set you free but will condemn you to oblivion.

James, to be sure, is far from the only sinner. In fact, the last two governors also were disingenuous about a key issue during the 1990 and 2002 campaigns -- Bob Miller and Kenny Guinn knew they were poised to proffer the largest tax increases in state history but misled voters during the campaign into believing they had made no such determination.

But while neutered candidates have become the norm, James provides an object lesson of what happens at the unfortunate intersection of private and public duties, of ambition and reality, of truth and consequences.

His career has been enormously frustrating to watch, from the highs of his probing intellect as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and his fortitude during the 2001 session in seeking more money for education to the lows of his reign as King James, the grandstanding monarch of rhetorical posturing and headline-grabbing.

When he arrived at the county from Carson City, I, like others, hoped he would not go the way of so many other promising lawmakers who came South to local government, only to find their political sepulchers. Ex-Judge, ex-Assemblyman Gene Porter. Ex-Assemblyman, ex-Councilman Matt Callister. And, of course, ex-Assemblymen and ex-Commissioners Dario Herrera and Erin Kenny.

James almost immediately became disengaged because of his mother's death. And just as he was recovering from mourning her and diving into growth issues, his father's Parkinson's disease worsened and he felt compelled to exit.

Others have disappeared from the scene for different reasons -- some forcibly retired, others voluntarily so. But what James embodies is that the race doesn't always go to the smartest and that those with brains often do well for awhile because, quite simply, they are better at the worst parts of the game -- the phoniness, the glibness, the slickness.

And if there is no incentive to be honest with voters, and spinmeisters chafe at the very thought, then it's no wonder most voters -- and political reporters -- don't believe a word that comes out of elected officials' mouths, especially during campaigns.

It is easy to blame the consultants, but that goes right to the point here: The utter lack of forthrightness and responsibility that is more endemic to the political process than ever. From Capitol Hill, where the ludicrous 9-11 fingerpointing has reached a zenith, to Carson City, where those who would have voted for $500 million or more in new taxes portray themselves as anti-tax, the lie becomes the truth.

The media are culpable, too. Look how many of us refused to take at face value James' insistence that his family problems led to his resignation. The Fourth Estate does such a miserable job covering politics, often publishing or airing polls without context or credibility and eschewing debates for fluff pieces. The politicians, like athletes, often will play down to the level of the competition -- if they don't have to give straight answers, they won't.

And the final piece of this frustrating puzzle is the public, which is easily manipulated by elected charlatans and crusading newspapers. Voters are either willfully ignorant, alienated by the pols and the negativity in the media, or they are simply slothful and rush to vote early so they don't have to think any more. At the time of the greatest access to information in the history of the world, what we hear most from the electorate is a long, hollow whine.

The worst outcome of this confluence of factors is the anesthetizing effect it has on everyone, a deadening of the senses to what is happening, a gradual acceptance that change is impossible. The promising become the former and almost no one notices.

So it's not unreasonable to assume that legislative candidates will be allowed to lie about their tax positions, that local government officials will continue with impunity to not to draw a line between their private and public interests, that politicians generally will compete to see who is more successful in fooling most of the people most of the time.

Also among James' post-resignation revelations are that he believes the Legislature should meet annually and that local government politicians should be full time and paid better salaries (he is right on all counts). Easy for him to say, now that he's gone.

Actually, James says he still wants to be in public service, just not in elective office. Fine. The greatest service he could provide to the public, with his extensive knowledge of issues and the process, is to point out when politicians are being less than honest and misleading the electorate.

There's plenty of room for another hectoring voice.