Columnist Jon Ralston: Sharing some thoughts on questionable political donations

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 | 8 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face with Jon Ralston on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the daily e-mail newsletter RalstonFlash.com. His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or through e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Andre Agassi has donated money to Harry Reid. If that campaign cash has accomplished nothing else besides the risible shibboleth -- access to good government -- perhaps the tennis star needs to remind the Senate minority leader of his most famous quote: Image is everything.

Maybe Reid, as he says, has never met or even chatted with Jack Abramoff, the disgraced capital power broker who pleaded guilty Tuesday to three federal felonies. Maybe Reid, as he says, has done nothing wrong so there is no reason to return about $60,000 in Abramoff-linked contributions. And maybe, as Reid says, he would have had the same position on a Louisiana tribal gambling compact whether or not an Abramoff client that opposed it gave him $5,000 one day after he wrote a letter trying to scuttle the project.

But even if Reid is given the benefit of the doubt -- and no Republican will, considering he is the opposition's frothing pit bull -- he cannot separate himself from the backdrop of this widening scandal. As Reid stands on the stage's forefront stubbornly balking at the notion he find the key to his campaign vault and make a withdrawal, behind the good senator many political leaders, including Democrats and Nevada's other senator, John Ensign, have tried to perfume the Abramoff stink by shedding the lobbyist-linked campaign cash.

These are not admissions of wrongdoing -- they are simply acknowledgement that a man now shown to be a criminal funneled money to them. Reid can call this a "Republican scandal" all he wants. But so long as he keeps the money, so long as stories continue to point out that a former aide worked with Abramoff on lobbying matters, so long as the questionable timing of that $5,000 donation hangs out there, Reid has a problem.

He can deny it is there. But it is the donkey in the room, even if there are more elephants standing there.

I doubt Reid will ever be found to have been too cozy with Abramoff or his associates -- for instance, I hear he never has been to an Abramoff skybox at the MCI Center to be wined and dined.

Reid apparently has been to a couple of MCI skyboxes for events -- one for his predecessor Tom Daschle in a box owned by the MCI Center owners and another for a Paul McCartney concert/fundraiser in a box owned by megaconglomerate Altria.

But that money he took gives Republicans a ready-made shield (they attack him nearly every day on the issue) against the minority leader's charges that this is solely a GOP problem. And even if they still would bludgeon him should Reid return the money, in this case he will find that image is everything.

Or as McCartney might agree, maybe I'm amazed he hasn't given the money back already.

They just wanted me in any office ...

When campaign reports for three of the leading candidates for governor are released in 10 days, their totals will be augmented by money not intended for their gubernatorial campaigns. Rep. Jim Gibbons, state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson have significant amounts of cash they are carrying over from previous campaigns.

Gibbons wouldn't be much over $2 million without $300,000 from his congressional war chest -- that will boost him to about $2.3 million on hand, sources say. Gibson is moving about $400,000 from his mayoral election last year into his gubernatorial coffers, which gets him to about $1.5 million or so on-hand, sources confirm. And Titus is shifting $300,000 from her legislative war chest into her gubernatorial campaign to push her just over the $1 million mark.

But not to worry: I am sure each candidate has written letters to the affected donors and asked them if they can keep the money to fulfill their higher ambitions. You know, the letters that say: "Hi, I'm running for governor and I knew I was when you gave me money for something else. But I am sure you have no problem with me keeping the cash because if you do, I might do something nasty to you if I am elected to the state's most powerful position."

Or words to that effect.