Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.
With the traditional Labor Day kickoff to the fall campaign season only days away, state Democrats have received a political gift from an unlikely source - Nevada's Republican Party chairman.
That's the view of party insiders and political observers, many of whom believe that state GOP Chairman Paul Adams' recent actions have wounded a Republican congressional candidate and fostered the impression of a party in disarray.
In a letter Sunday to party leaders, Adams said he supports a court challenge by failed GOP congressional candidate Sharron Angle in which she alleges voter disenfranchisement and calls for a new primary election against the victor, Dean Heller. The court fight, party activists say, gives a boost to Democrat Jill Derby in the 2nd Congressional District race.
Adams' backing of Angle's lawsuit, combined with what others see as his other recent gaffes, has left him a laughingstock within his own party - evidenced by the initial reaction of many contacted Tuesday.
After laughing for a bit, Steve Wark, former GOP chairman and a prominent political consultant, called Adams' move puzzling. "He's an educated man, he's been around and that makes it more of a mystery as to what's going on inside his head," Wark said.
Adams could not be reached Tuesday.
Although Adams has his defenders, many leading Republicans are concerned about his continued public interference in intraparty fights, which they say has divided the party and called into question his ability to lead Republican candidates into November. For the first time in a decade, they say, the state GOP is less organized than the Democrats.
Dan Burdish, former executive director of the state party and a Heller supporter, chuckled at Adams' latest foibles, but then said: "Paul's dead wrong on this."
Similarly, Ryan Erwin, also a former executive director of the state party and a Republican consultant, laughed when Adams' name was mentioned.
"I can't come up with a single scenario where Paul Adams supporting a lawsuit against the Republican nominee for Congress does anything but help the Democrats," Erwin said.
Wark said Adams' support for Angle's long shot lawsuit shows an ignorance about what his job is - to get Republicans elected in November. The lawsuit, he said, is getting in the way of Republicans putting all their resources behind Heller and his battle with Derby, a university regent. Until the lawsuit is cleared up, Heller is likely to remain off-message.
"Time is the most expensive thing because you can't get more of it," Wark said. "You can get more money, signs, mailings, but not time. To give that away so freely, it shows an ignorance as to the currency of time."
UNR political scientist Eric Herzik said the intraparty fight puts the 2nd Congressional District - usually reliably Republican - into play.
"Jill Derby was already doing everything right, and then she gets this gift," he said. "How do you turn a safe district into a competitive one? Fight among yourselves.
"Republicans here have won because they've stayed united and they continue to turn out. Now you've got partisan infighting, and Adams' leadership is aiding and abetting that - in an already bad year for Republicans.
"He's the head of the party and he's supporting the losing candidate who's pursuing a divisive action," Herzik, a Republican, continued. "I don't know what he's doing."
Greg Ferraro, a Republican lobbyist and consultant who supports Heller, said Adams' short political career - he's new to Nevada and new to politics - would probably soon be finished.
As party chairman, Ferraro said, Adams should have remained neutral, focusing his efforts on fundraising and party building, instead of taking sides in a congressional race: "He should have kept his powder dry. I think this has secured his future."
With an eye on November, the state's elected Republican leaders are trying to persuade Angle to withdraw.
In a statement, Rep. Jon Porter called Angle's challenge "ill-advised" and expressed support for Heller as the "chosen nominee." And U.S. Sen. John Ensign, who lost an equally close Senate race in 1998, said he told Angle that "it is time to move on."
In other words, Porter and Ensign are doing exactly what party insiders think Adams should be doing: threatening and cajoling Angle to get out of the way so that the party can focus on retaining the seat, which could determine who controls Congress.
Instead, Adams seemed to join sides in an intraparty fight. Again.
As party chairman, Adams has shown a propensity for picking public battles with his party's own candidates and elected officials, often in the clumsiest way possible.
Last month, two weeks before the primary, Adams branded Assemblywoman Francis Allen a liar, blasting the GOP incumbent in a letter sent to her district's Republican voters for campaign material he said implied the endorsement of the state party. No such endorsement existed, he said.
"I now realize my trust in her was misplaced," Adams wrote. "Her knowing misuse of my statement in a manner intended to mislead voters raises a serious question regarding her integrity."
The chairman went on to give the party's tacit endorsement to Allen's primary challenger, Cliff Fields. Allen, however, won the primary.
Another episode that raised eyebrows occurred at the sparsely attended state convention earlier this year, where Adams pushed through a bylaw change to prevent the party from supporting - financially or otherwise - any candidate who had been impeached and convicted while in office. That was seen as a direct attack on Kathy Augustine, the impeached state controller who was running for state treasurer. After much debate, the measure passed.
Despite those incidents, some Republicans supported Adams on Tuesday.
Ron Knecht, the Carson City party chairman, said Adams' support for Angle could call attention to electoral problems in Washoe County.
"There is a serious issue in Washoe County with its management of elections," Knecht said.
"Maybe she can help highlight and correct that with her action. He's just saying she does have a point, and we do have a duty to the process and the voters. I think some people read more into that than they ought to. He doesn't want to undermine Dean Heller. It was a judgment call."
As for the potential effect on the party's chances in November, most were at least publicly optimistic, saying the party's stable of elected officials - Porter, Ensign, Gov. Kenny Guinn and Rep. Jim Gibbons, the party's candidate for governor - would combine with Republicans' voter registration advantage to deliver victory.
"It behooves anyone who wants to get Republicans elected to understand that every so often you have to overcome the worst instincts of your party and just go get the job done," Wark said.
archive
