Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

The invisible candidate

Congressional candidate Kenneth Wegner is a little confused. "It's some Republican something," he says, maneuvering his white Chevy Tahoe into a parking spot at the Ellis Island Casino in Las Vegas. "They just tell me to go and I go."

By "they," Wegner is referring to a quirky patchwork of volunteer staffers who take turns feeding this snowball's-chance candidate an ever-evolving schedule by cell phone over the course of 16-hour days.

The "Republican something" is the Nevada Republican Men's Club luncheon on Monday, and Wegner isn't on the list. He won his party's nomination to face four-term Democratic incumbent Shelley Berkley in Nevada's 1st Congressional District, but he has to crash a Republican party.

And pay $20 to eat.

Wegner coughs up the money and starts working the room. He doesn't get very far before the event's keynote speaker arrives - Rep. Jon Porter, one of two Nevada Republicans in the U.S. House.

Porter draws near to his potential ally, then steals a glance at Wegner's name tag.

"He's doing all the right things," Porter says moments later. "I admire him for running."

The praise is boilerplate. Wegner appears to shrink.

He settles into his "rubber chicken" lunch and waits for a chance to give his two-minute pitch. It comes after an impassioned call to arms by state Sen. Barbara Cegavske and is followed by a barn-burning speech by embattled Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald. Sandwiched between the two, Wegner is crushed, sadly.

Before long, he's out the door for the first of two radio interviews.

"Jon Porter forgot my name," Wegner says.

"I get more support from Democrats than Republicans."

He pauses. "I know I'm going to get in trouble for saying that."

Wegner, a Gulf War combat veteran and volunteer bail enforcement agent, is running as the ultimate outsider, hinging his candidacy on a get-tough-on-immigration platform.

While he has supported Berkley in the past, he says that the congresswoman has grown beholden to special-interest groups. He calls her soft on immigration and says her votes have hurt veterans. All are charges that Berkley vigorously disputes.

Wegner faces daunting demographics. Democrats hold a 48 percent to 33 percent registration edge - 38,000 more possible voters - over Republicans in the district.

Complicating his bid, Wegner has refused to take money from political action committees and special-interest groups. Instead, he says, he has taken out a second mortgage on his home to finance the bulk of this campaign, and expects to spend another $20,000 in personal savings, in addition to selling his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, before Election Day.

For Wegner, it's a matter of principle. "You have to be a multimillionaire with your hand in everybody's pocket to run for office today," he says. "This campaign is making it so the average guy can run again."

But as Wegner is finding out, the average guy has a tough time getting noticed - and an even tougher time running a modern political campaign off $25 checks and word-of-mouth .

That's why he - and his 1,200 campaign signs - can be found throughout the 1st District on any given day, from sunrise to sunset. He has been making the rounds: back yard barbecues, family dinners, cocktail parties, library forums, gun shows and even a fundraiser for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dina Titus.

"I'll go anywhere I'm invited," he says.

For the most part, Wegner is going it alone, without support from the national party and minimal assistance from the state party. He says he wasn't counting on either, mostly because of his last experience in politics. In 2004 Wegner unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to challenge Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. That time, he says, the Nevada Republican Party never even returned his phone calls.

Not much has changed this time out, Wegner says.

Paul Adams, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, said Wegner is receiving the same treatment as the party's other candidates this election cycle. The state party is focused on voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of its entire slate, he said. The party does not make financial contributions to candidates, he said.

Adams acknowledged that Wegner is engaged in the toughest congressional contest in the state, a bid made more difficult by his refusal to accept PAC money. While voters may find Wegner's position attractive, a small war chest will limit his ability to get his message out. "It's his choice, and all choices have consequences," Adams said.

Still, Wegner has raised enough cash for small media buys, and is now airing attack ads on talk radio . The ads, like Wegner, don't mince words.

Immigration reform, he says, begins with a fence along the entire U.S. -Mexico border. Troops now stationed in Germany and Japan would be redeployed to the border, and the federal government would undertake a massive crackdown on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Opposed to a guest-worker program, Wegner would like to see illegal immigrants register at various checkpoints along the border as part of what he calls an "Ellis Island West" program intended to streamline the immigration process, expedite citizenship for those willing to work and learn English and reduce the illegal drug trade.

"Sign the book, learn English and be free of disease," Wegner says. "Why is that so difficult? What person wouldn't agree with that?"

On the Iraq war, Wegner says he was opposed to the initial invasion but now is committed to winning on the ground. The war itself could have been avoided - or certainly shortened - he says, if American leaders had pursued another option: "I know it's illegal to assassinate foreign leaders. But dropping bombs on a few good targets would have sent the right message."

He also supports a flat, 10 percent income tax, instituting a 2 percent national sales tax and imposing an additional 10 percent tax on imports to pay off the national debt.

That kind of candor, Wegner believes, is the major reason for the lack of party support.

His political heroes, he says, are former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and former Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

"You can't be truthful today," he says. "We're so afraid of offending anyone. Being politically correct has affected our judgment.

"The problem with our party is that they want us to all go in lock step. I guess I don't belong to the right clubs."

As for his Democratic opponent, Wegner is raising the same ethics questions that have dogged Berkley in past campaigns.

As vice president of government and legal affairs for the Sands Hotel, Berkley wrote memos in 1996 advising her boss, Sands owner Sheldon Adelson, to make campaign contributions to judges as a way to curry favor.

Two years later, during her first bid for the 1st District, Berkley apologized for exercising what she called "bad judgment." In 2000, the issue surfaced again, but without much effect on her campaign. She easily won re-election. Berkley's margin of victory has grown in the last two election cycles. In 2004, she coasted to a fourth term with 66 percent of the vote.

Still, Wegner is using the memos as part of his arsenal. In addition, he says that Berkley has "done nothing" on immigration, and that her recent vote for legislation that would build a 700-mile fence along the border doesn't go far enough.

Back at his campaign headquarters, a small storefront next to a bail bond agency, Wegner returns volunteer phone calls and answers e-mail.

"How do I ask my friends for money?" he says.

As he ponders that question, he opens a desk drawer and holds up a fistful of voided campaign contribution checks, mostly from political action committees and special-interest groups. Some are from citizens he deems too poor to be giving money to a political campaign. "How do you take that money?"

Then, opening another cabinet, he shows off an even larger stack, this one comprising personal checks made out in small amounts. "This is America," he says. "I'll represent big business, too, but I'm not going to be in their pocket."

archive