Nevada to gain from people in high places

Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006 | 1:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON - The Democratic sweep to power in Congress offers new openings on key domestic policy issues for Nevada.

The new Congress will be more friendly to efforts to beef up the 1872 Mining Law with pollution controls, study ways to legalize Internet gambling and, perhaps most important, stop a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

After a long era of Republican domination of Washington, interest groups are poised to bring Democratic issues that they hope the party will embrace as part of a domestic agenda. The party has turned away from the conservative-backed Republican policies toward a more moderate focus on middle-class issues.

That shift will see the Democrats trying to increase the minimum wage for the first time in a decade, lower the costs of Medicare prescription drugs and adopt college tuition tax credits.

President Bush, looking for common ground with Democrats, suggests working together on immigration reform and education policy - two issues crucial to the state, where the Hispanic population is growing and the school performance is dismal.

For Nevada, said professor John J. Pitney, a former Republican strategist now at Claremont McKenna College, "the Democratic agenda isn't for the high rollers , it's for the ladies playing the slots. That's middle-class America right there."

Nevada stands to gain from having a miner's son from Searchlight leading the Senate. Majority Leader-to-be Harry Reid's rise to power cloaks the state with a protective layer like nothing else, experts said. The state also benefits from Sen. John Ensign's expected new position as head of the Republican campaign arm in the Senate.

"For the next Congress, one of the watchwords will be, 'Don't mess with Nevada,' " Pitney said. "It'd be very difficult to do anything to Nevada that Harry Reid doesn't want done." That's good news for foes of the proposed Yucca Mountain dump, who have been fighting Bush's attempts to get the stalled nuclear waste repository back on track before he leaves office. It is nearly 20 years behind schedule.

The expected new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, has vowed to hold oversight hearings on the project - he's a supporter, but like many in Congress, he is frustrated by the delays. New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who will take over the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is not likely to provoke Reid by pushing pro-Yucca legislation. Reid told reporters the day after the election he would be working on his long-running proposal to store waste at the nuclear power plants.

Michelle Boyd, who handles energy policy at the watchdog group Public Citizen, sees an opening to argue her case that Yucca Mountain won't be accepting waste anytime soon. "I'm talking to everybody," she said.

The nuclear industry said it was looking forward to working with the new Congress.

For Nevada's No. 1 industry, the new Congress offers casinos another spin at Internet gambling. Gaming took a hit when the Republican-led Congress passed a ban on Internet gambling as part of its values agenda . Casinos have been considering whether to jump into the multibillion-dollar industry, and want a study to see whether online games could be regulated.

The new Congress, with Reid at the helm, offers an opening for gaming issues.

"Anytime you have people in leadership who understand your issues, it can't help but be a good thing," American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf said in a statement.

Mining reform advocates see in a Democratic-run Congress their first chance in years to beef up pollution controls over Nevada's other main industry. Reid backs mining, but activists hope the House gets behind legislation from Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the expected new chairman of the Resources Committee, to change the 1872 Mining Law.

Alan Septoff of the mining watchdog group Earthworks said that after the Bush administration's rollback of mining reforms, Democratic control of Congress means communities "don't have to worry about things getting worse." But as much as Nevada's clout soars with the elevation of Reid, its postelection position in the House is about "a wash," UNLV political science professor David Damore said. Voters sent one Democrat and two Republicans back to Congress, the same as before.

With just one Nevada Democrat in the House, Rep. Shelley Berkley, the state doesn't have the strength in numbers that could help capitalize on the majority position. While Berkley is likely to head a Veterans Affairs subcommittee, which would be important to Nevada's thousands of military veterans, she faces stiff competition for a coveted spot on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

She will be on her own to drum up support for her top issue next session - her energy reform bill, which calls for decreasing the nation's reliance on nuclear power and increasing investment in renewable sources such as wind and solar.

UNR political science professor Eric Herzik said Democratic control poses challenges for Republican Rep. Jon Porter, but also offers him an opportunity to assert himself after being attacked as a lock-step Republican in the campaign. As his party loses the power it once wielded to keep members in line, Porter could find more breathing room to act on his own.

"Porter now has to decide, 'Do I continue to play by those rules and ... put my political career at risk, or do I say, Go for it?' " Herzik said.

Porter's spokesman said the congressman always votes his mind and will continue to do so in the new Congress. He hopes to win a seat on the Ways and Means Committee, which lost nearly half its Republican members in the election.

"Just because we're in the minority does not put a cap on the ability to raise stature, seniority and accomplishment," Porter spokesman Trevor Kolego said.

Nevada's new member of Congress, Republican Dean Heller, the secretary of state, hopes to follow his predecessor Jim Gibbons on the House Resources Committee, which handles mining issues important to his mostly rural district. He also may seek a seat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Nevada's Democrats and Republicans tend to work together on issues important to the state, and Heller expects that to continue, only now Republicans "will be leaning on them on those Nevada issues."

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