Jon Ralston on Porter’s laughable attack on Hafen

Friday, Oct. 6, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

Some scribblings from the political notebook at the end of another long week - I think they get shorter after Nov. 7:

The public's right to know is paramount: Asked about those cutthroat ads he is running against native Nevadan Tessa Hafen, Rep. Jon Porter this week had a solemn answer for NewsOne's Jeff Gillan.

"She left the community at 18 and came back at 30, so I think the public needs to know that and I think that's very fair," Porter explained.

May I parse?

So Hafen is born and raised here and goes off to college, as many young adults do. That's four years. The horror!

Then she gets a job in her chosen field in Washington, D.C., and works for Sen. Harry Reid for eight years. I bet she forgot where Nevada was on the map. Did she even visit once? Someone get the travel records.

The public needs to know that? Know what? That she worked on Capitol Hill?

And what's wrong with that, someone should ask the congressman who has worked there for almost four years. How many years does it take for it to be a bad thing? And what exactly does this tell us about her?

Fair? Please. This is so comical that if it works - and it just might because Hafen is not well known - nothing can beat this for Chutzpah of the Year honors. And it is a competitive field.

They keep coming: If you still don't believe that Nevada is going to be a hotbed of presidential politics for the next two years, consider what is happening now - and Campaign '06 isn't even over yet. We are going to have close to one or two visits a week for the rest of this cycle - and then wait until next year and beyond.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in for the second time in a fortnight, were here this week. And next week, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold will make a brief stop in Nevada. Yes, they are all here to help Democratic candidates raise money. But their prime goal is to start to gain a foothold in the state that now will hold its Democratic presidential caucus right after Iowa.

Quote of the week: "I have no qualifications."

How often do you hear that in politics from candidates running for office?

Answer: Almost never.

And, yet, I heard it twice on "Face to Face" on Thursday, once from an Assembly candidate and once from a contender for county recorder.

Actually, Bob Beers (no, not that Bob Beers) first made the comments in an interview questionnaire for KLAS Channel 8, saying experience hasn't been shown to help much in the Assembly. He is running as a Republican in the open seat.

"None, really," he answered about his qualifications to serve in the Gang of 63. That would be appalling, if not for the fact that so many of that group could have answered the same.

Although the lesser known of the two Beerses claimed he won his primary because of his "shoe leather," on the Channel 8 questionnaire he declared, "Vote for the name you know, for both Assembly and Governor."

Now there's a qualification.

On the same program - yes, it was a humdinger! - recorder hopeful Moshe Comforti simply said, "I have no qualifications," when I asked him what makes him think he can take over for Fran Deane.

If only she had told us that ...

One final note on the recorder's debate: The only contender not to return repeated phone calls from my producers was government employee Debbie Conway, the Democratic candidate who calls herself a "developer" and is in that business with Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates. Conway works for the county, may occasionally be in her office and may have about the same qualifications as Mr. Comforti. But all we know is that she is an Atkinson Gates crony, has made a lot of money in the development game and is about to be elected (maybe) to a position important to that community. And she previously has said she can keep that business partnership with Atkinson Gates, too.

The more things change ...