Las Vegas display a big hit with mayors at D.C conference

Benjamin Grove

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006 | 7:51 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- An eye-grabbing Las Vegas display brought a splash of color to the drab Washington setting for the U.S. Conference of Mayors last week.

The nation's urban leaders, in conservative dark suits, strolled the Capital Hilton hallway outside their meeting rooms, barely glancing at booth after booth of dull displays: the Plastic Pipes Institute, Sister City International, the Justice Department's COPS program.

But the Las Vegas table drew a steady crowd, welcoming mayors to their summer meeting June 2-6 on the Strip. It helped that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority-sponsored booth offered visitors free Polaroid snapshots with two showgirls and an Elvis impersonator. Free swag included Las Vegas pins and blue casino chips adorned with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's caricature, martini in hand. A brochure hinted at the boozy revelry to come:

* An "Only in Vegas" night kickoff at the Paris Las Vegas.

* "Oscar's Night," an "exclusive, high-end event" with celebrity impersonators (Cher, Liberace) and a few surprise real ones, plus "a sumptuous array of appetizers, dining choices and liquid libations."

* A poolside "Hot Tropical Nights" event promising more drinks -- "fruity cocktails" -- and hula lessons. "We'll have photographers to capture every gyrating moment of this night of adult fun," the brochure vows. "After all, you can't have too many shots of you and those island-clad showgirls now, can you?"

C'mon mayors, say cheese!

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If Sen. Harry Reid's press secretary Tessa Hafen, 29, could oust Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., she could become the youngest of 535 members of Congress. (First things first -- Hafen hasn't officially announced, and Porter is a well-financed, well-organized two-term incumbent.)

Being the youngest has its drawbacks. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., 31, who still gets carded at bars, was the youngest member for four years before Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., 30, was elected in 2004.

On the day Putnam was sworn in, police stopped him on the Capitol steps and demanded to know where he got his congressional ID pin. Putnam protested that he had spent a lot of time and money for that pin, and the cops realized he was "that kid from Florida" they had been told about, Putnam chief of staff John Hambel said. (Putnam himself spent last week with a phone pressed to his ear, drumming up support among colleagues in an ambitious bid to be the next Republican Policy Committee chairman.)

Putnam has endured a lot of hazing since that first day, but also has used the youngest title to draw attention to his issues, aides said.

"That's the news angle, but he has used it to showcase his talents," Hambel said.

There is pressure on youngest members to be a voice for young adults in a Congress where the average age is 56. Putnam has been vocal on preserving Social Security, backing President Bush's proposals, Hambel said.

"He obviously comes from a generation that is vastly different from his colleagues," Hambel said. "They think a BlackBerry is a fruit you put on your cereal and a Palm is the state tree of Florida."

Hafen would not be the only youngster on the 2006 ballot. Democrat Shane Sklar, who turns 30 in March, is running for a House seat in Texas. And Raj Bhakta, 30, of television's "The Apprentice," has launched a bid for a Pennsylvania seat.

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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., last week effectively moved up his "pre-buttal" of President Bush's State of the Union speech after scratching a Thursday speech at the National Press Club.

Reid said he had a scheduling conflict and would miss the Press Club event where he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were to outline a Democratic agenda. (Reid sent Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.)

Then Reid went to the Center for American Progress Tuesday and laid on Bush to "come clean" on White House connections to "Republican corruption."

Meanwhile, Republicans in Nevada were irked that Reid seems to be getting a free pass in the media, given that he accepted campaign donations from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, said Nevada Republican Party director Chris Gulugian-Taylor.

Gulugian-Taylor said his office received a steady stream of phone calls last week from upset GOP voters who think Reid has no moral high ground.

"It seems that Sen. Reid is up to his old tricks of obstruction at all costs," Gulugian-Taylor said.

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There are relatively few competitive House races for open seats, Washington political expert Stuart Rothenberg reported in his Roll Call column last week.

Scraping to put together a "dangerous dozen" list where the incumbent party could lose its seat, only four are "strong takeover possibilities" -- districts in Iowa, Colorado, Ohio and Arizona, Rothenberg said.

Still, Nevada's District 2 seat, being vacated by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons, made the bottom of the list of 12.

Rothenberg hinted that it would take a sweeping national "tilt" toward Democrats for Jill Derby to win there. "If the Democrats win this district, they will take over the House," Rothenberg wrote.

Benjamin Grove can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at grove@ lasvegassun.com.