Porter vs. Hafen

By Tony Cook

Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

In October 2003, U.S. Rep. Jon Porter voted in favor of giving U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan a $1,500 bonus.

But that was before aides to Republican Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., talked to the Nevada Republican.

Minutes later - on the House floor - Porter switched his vote, producing a 213-213 tie, effectively killing the measure.

Porter's flip-flop prevented Democrats, who had proposed the salary bonus, from getting any credit for supporting the troops. Porter said later that he switched after learning of other benefits for troops already in the legislation. But it was no secret that GOP leaders wanted the measure dead.

The vote is illustrative of how Porter has operated in his 3 1/2 years in Washington . That same year, he supported President Bush's agenda 98 percent of the time, according to a Congressional Quarterly study of House votes.

In short, Porter has been a good GOP foot soldier, reliable in a pinch.

But times have changed since the legislator's freshman term.

Bush has fallen out of favor and his approval ratings have dropped to some of their lowest points as the war in Iraq drags on.

The Republican-led Congress, meanwhile, has been rocked by scandals. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, resigned after an indictment on charges that he conspired to funnel tens of thousands of dollars in illegal corporate money into campaigns. And some Republicans in Congress, such as Bob Ney of Ohio, have been tainted by the scandal involving Jack Abramoff, the megalobbyist who pleaded guilty in January to corrupting public officials and ripping off his clients.

In other words, it's not an especially good time to have an "R" next to your name on the ballot.

"It's a question of how much of an independent Porter can portray himself as. How do I avoid guilt by association?" said David Wasserman, who analyzes House races at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

While Porter has been in Congress long enough to have a record to defend, his challenger in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, Tessa Hafen, is an unknown.

Even so, some assumptions can be drawn. Her entire adult life since college has been spent working as press secretary for Sen. Harry Reid, and, so far in her campaign, she hasn't cited a single issue where she departs from her mentor, the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate.

With a campaign war chest about a third the size of Porter's, it will be a challenge for Hafen to become known in the five weeks before early voting begins. But she may not need to offer a fully formed image to voters because Hafen's best campaign argument is: I'm not Porter.

In that sense, the race boils down to a referendum on Jon Porter and, by extension, President Bush and the Republican leadership in Washington.

At its core, the 3rd District race is not a question of whether voters want Hafen or Porter. It's more a question of whether they want Porter and Bush, and if they don't, are they willing to entrust the office to a 30-year-old neophyte looking to start her climb on the political ladder not at city council or some other local post, but rather on one of the loftiest rungs, in Congress?

"In a neutral election cycle, Porter wouldn't have much trouble defeating Hafen," said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report in Washington . "The president is the shadow looming over this."

Porter, 51, came to Nevada in 1977, after dropping out of Briar Cliff College in Iowa, where he had been studying to become a Catholic priest. He never graduated from college.

While raising a family, he became an insurance agent and earned a Boulder City Council seat in 1983, where he served for 10 years, four as mayor. He also served in the state Senate for eight years, during which he lost a congressional bid against Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., in 2000.

But Porter came back in 2002 and won Nevada's new 3rd District, a pinwheel-shaped district that includes most of Clark County and is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

Since then, he has toed the GOP line consistently, voting with party leadership about 90 percent of the time over the past three years, according to Congressional Quarterly.

Perhaps the most notorious instance came when Porter voted to change the rules for House Republicans when news of DeLay's potential legal troubles broke.

With Porter's support, Republicans dropped their rule that called for members to give up leadership posts if they are indicted. But after a public outcry, Porter, who has accepted $25,000 in contributions from DeLay and his political action committee, joined other Republicans in voting to reinstate the rule, forcing DeLay to step down.

"My position was someone is innocent until proven guilty," he said. Asked why, given that, he then voted to reinstate the rule, Porter said: "We felt we wanted to remain consistent in our approach."

Porter often is portrayed as a nice guy unwilling to offend. As mayor of Boulder City, he once crossed the political aisle to host a fundraiser at his home for Reid.

But in January, he broke ranks with the rest of Nevada's congressional delegation in the name of partisanship when he attacked Reid for not returning money from those with ties to Abramoff. Other Nevadans in Washington, including Rep. Jim Gibbons and Sen. John Ensign, refused to comment on the topic.

But for all his willingness to help Bush and his party, Porter seems to get little in return.

Those who know his Washington, D.C., life the best - his fellow Republicans on the Hill - passed him up for a seat on the prestigious Ways and Means Committee, where all tax legislation originates, despite lobbying from the gaming industry for him to get the choice assignment.

"Most freshman and sophomore members don't get seats on those committees," said Porter, who was in his second term at the time.

But those viewed as up-and-comers often do. Ensign, for example, earned a seat on the committee as a new House member in 1994.

"I never found him to be an intellectual," a former Washington aide who asked not to be identified said of Porter. "Never once did I hear him articulate a proposal."

"I never knew what he stood for. He never really gives his positions on any of the real important topics of the day. Yucca Mountain, yeah, but in Nevada, who wouldn't oppose Yucca Mountain?"

Even on Yucca Mountain, one of the most important issues to Southern Nevada, Porter also failed to receive what he wants - this time from Bush.

Last year, Porter used his position as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's Federal Workforce and Agency Organization subcommittee to subpoena documents - thought to reveal safety problems with the project - from the Bush administration.

Anything but complete opposition to the proposed federal nuclear waste repository is political suicide in Nevada; so Porter's break from his usual support of the president is no surprise.

More surprising is that 13 months later, several of the most important documents requested in the subpoena still have not been turned over. In fact, Bush was bucking Porter's subpoena even as he flew into Las Vegas last April to raise money - $400,000 worth - for Porter's re-election campaign.

Such a public display of alignment with Bush - even as the president plummets in the polls - probably will not help Porter this year.

His record of flip-flopping gives Porter something else to explain to voters.

In addition to switching his votes on the bonuses for soldiers and on the DeLay issue, Porter also has shifted his stance on another hot-button subject: illegal immigration.

Porter voted for a House bill approved last year that would crack down on illegal immigrants and those who support them. The House bill would require building a 700-mile fence along the Mexico border, make it a felony to assist a person entering the country illegally, increase the maximum fine for employers of illegal immigrants from $10,000 to $40,000 per violation and make illegal presence in the country a felony.

Earlier this year, though, Porter advocated the approach outlined by Bush, which includes a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who clear a set of hurdles.

Porter said the plan all along was to pass a tough border-protection act in the House and then compromise with a Senate bill, which more closely resembled Bush's plan.

"The arrangement was for both houses to do border security, and the Senate to do a guest-worker program, and then bring them together," Porter said in May.

House Republican leaders, however, are standing by the House bill.

Now, Porter seems to be shifting his stance on the issue again. He said this week that border security is again his top priority, but added: "I support looking at options at some point for the 12 million people living in the shadows But there needs to be penalties for those who break the law."

Porter's tendency to vote the party line may be a problem as he tries to convince voters that he puts Nevada ahead of his party and Bush.

The question is whether that will be enough to push Hafen - whose record is a blank slate - over the top.

"If it's not about Bush, they are not winning this district," said Chuck Todd, editor of The Hotline, a non partisan political newsletter in Washington. "If it's about Bush, then it's keeping them in the game."

Aware of that, Porter is trying to distance himself from the president, by, among other things, touting his Yucca subpoena and the fact that he voted against Bush's wishes in favor of expanding federal spending on embryonic stem cell research. Porter's recent TV advertisement underlines the message with the slogan: "The independence to do what's right; the experience to get it done."

With the campaign season now in full swing, it's telling that no visits from Bush or members of his administration to Southern Nevada are scheduled between now and Election Day.

"I've always done what's best for Nevada," Porter said. "It's not about Washington, D.C. It's about Nevada."

For her part, Hafen not only must convince voters to fire Porter but give them a reason to vote for her.

Last week, Hafen sat in the dining room of her parent's Henderson home as Bush began his televised speech on the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Her family scrambled to make sure they were recording the talk.

"Public office and politics have always been a way of life for us," said Hafen, daughter of 19-year Henderson City Councilman Andy Hafen and the oldest of six children.

With eight years of experience on Capitol Hill - what she calls "on-the-ground training" - Hafen is hardly a novice when it comes to politics, even though this is her first run for elective office. So to voters, she is new.

"She needs to become a credible alternative to Porter," Gonzales said. "Even if voters are mad at the president, they are not just going to vote for any name on the ballot. They have to have some reason. She's done spin for years now. Now she's got to spin her own credentials."

Hafen believes that she has given voters reasons to vote for her, not just to replace Porter.

Hafen wants to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for mishandling the war in Iraq and supports a timetable for redeploying American troops in Iraq.

She also differs from Porter on health care issues. She supports legalizing the importation of drugs from Canada and allowing the government to negotiate with drug makers for lower prices. She also wants to close the gap in Medicare coverage that forces some people to pay full price for expensive drugs.

A conservative Democrat on social issues, she supports a federal amendment banning gay marriage and opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and where the mother's life or health are at risk.

Hafen has criticized Porter for supporting Bush's energy plan, which gave billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to oil companies even as gasoline prices skyrocketed and oil companies recorded all-time high profits. Porter said the bill provided incentives - not giveaways - to oil companies to encourage them to find additional resources and open more refineries in the United States.

Hafen favors a plan that would promote hybrid vehicles, increase fuel economy standards and encourage states to invest in renewable resources such as sun, wind and geothermal energy.

"Over the past four months, I have laid out my priorities for voters to see," she said.

Even so, her chances on Nov. 7 likely hinge more on what voters have seen of Porter.

- As of July, Greenspun family members and Greenspun Corporation executives had contributed $13,800 to Hafen's campaign and $1,000 to Porter's. The Greenspun family owns the Las Vegas Sun.