Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007 | 1:21 a.m.
WASHINGTON - This year at the Elko Democratic Party annual dinner, the nation's top elected Democrat told a story to the dozens of guests.
It was the night of the 2004 election. While waiting for returns at a hotel in Las Vegas, he got a call from South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader who at the time was the nation's top elected Democrat.
"I've lost," Daschle said.
The man telling the story, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, recalled his reaction: "That was stunning for me. Not only had Tom Daschle lost, but our hopes of gaining the Senate were dashed" by the loss of his seat.
The national Republican Party had targeted Daschle, telling voters that he had lost touch with South Dakota voters in his pursuit of the Democrat s' agenda in Washington.
After the 2004 election, Reid was chosen as the Senate Democratic leader, succeeding Daschle, whose defeat the Nevadan considered an object lesson. He promised himself that he would never be that vulnerable at home.
It's a promise that will be tested between now and Reid's 2010 reelection campaign. As leader of Senate Democrats, Reid must advance an agenda that will at times be out of step with the views of his Nevada supporters, especially moderates and conservatives in rural communities.
Conservative pundit Chuck Muth in Nevada gets calls or e - mail every day from outraged Republicans "saying we've got to do something with Harry Reid," he said. They want him "Daschled."
The Republican National Committee is already gearing up. It sent an e - mail blast to thousands of Nevada voters this year summing up some of Reid's more controversial statements: His aggressive challenges to President Bush, who m Reid has called a "loser" and a "liar," and his description of Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as "incompetent."
At Reid's state office in Reno, colored push pins on a map show every time the senator, the state director or a staffer has visited a rural Nevada county. Whenever a bare spot emerges, the office knows it needs to get to work.
Reid hired full-time staff a few years ago to work directly with rural counties - one person in the north in 2002 and another, later, in the south. The northern staffer makes a four-day loop every other week to meet with elected officials, school board members and county sheriffs and understand what is happening and needed in their communities.
Those are smart moves in a state where Democrats can sound a lot like Republicans. Reid's 2004 campaign described him as an independent, credentials that rang true with his opposition to abortion rights and support for gun owners ' rights.
Elko County Commissioner Sheri Eklund-Brown, a Republican, voted for Reid in 2004. "I ignore what he does in Washington," Eklund-Brown said. "We've got four Republicans on our commission and I can tell you they'd say the same thing. I can see on a daily basis what he does for Northern Nevada."
Call his office with a problem and his staff handles it quickly, they say.
When Fallon residents were concerned that high arsenic in the water might be causing a leukemia cluster, for example, Reid's staff secured federal money for a water treatment plant. When the military threatened to close the Hawthorne munitions station , his staff intervened with long-term plans to secure the base and hundreds of jobs.
Reid knows the peril of failing to please the rurals. He won re election to a third term in 1998 by just 428 votes, carrying only two of Nevada's 17 counties - urban Clark County and the small union stronghold of Mineral County up north.
"The senator found out ... you can't just stay down in Vegas , where a lot of people are , and hope to win," said Humboldt County Commissioner John Milton, a Republican. "You have to reach out to the rural counties that are mostly Republican to win."
Milton offers a story to illustrate his support of Reid. Milton went to Washington in summer 2000 to testify against landmark legislation to set aside 1.2 million acres for wilderness and conservation in Northern Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
Ranchers, miners and outdoors enthusiasts argued that it was taking away too much land. In a few cases, road restrictions would leave private property owners unable to drive through the area to access their land.
President Clinton signed the bill that winter, but the next year, shortly after the conservation area's grand opening, Reid quietly ushered through a small piece of follow-up legislation that reversed some of the provisions Nevadans opposed.
Reid's staff had met with Milton and the ranchers, driven the routes and agreed to make the changes.
Environmentalists were not pleased. They had worked decades to secure the bill.
But in Reid, Milton saw a man of action. Milton, who had not voted for Reid in 1998, crossed party lines to help re elect the senator 2004.
Reid took Milton's Humboldt County with 93 votes - part of a rural sweep that added six more counties to his victory column.
"You can see first hand how he's helped us," Milton said this summer from his land survey ing business in downtown Winnemucca.
Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, is confident Reid will see a serious challenge for his seat. "As Harry Reid increasingly ties himself with the liberal policies of his party, the tougher he makes his prospects in 2010."
State Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden said Reid's work in Washington is diminishing his standing at home. His recent attacks on three coal - fired generating plants have alienated voters not only in White Pine County, where two of the plants are planned, but neighboring rural regions.
"He ran as an independent Nevadan and that's not what's going on," she said.
With thousands of newcomers moving to Nevada each month, Lowden said, many will know little of his past good deeds on Election Day. "We have so many new people who don't know who Harry Reid is - they don't even know where Searchlight is."
But those observing the effort to Daschelize Reid say key ingredients are lacking - namely a strong opponent. The Republicans have yet to find a serious challenger to Reid.
Republican Rep. Jon Porter is often mentioned, but he would need to survive his 2008 election before he could make a serious run.
Some Republicans look wishfully to millionaire Bruce James, the former Bush-appointed government printer who has suggested he might be interested. Other names are discussed. But until a candidate emerges, Reid is running against no one , which pundits say is always easier than campaigning against someone.
Also aiding Reid is John Ensign, Nevada's Republican senator. Ensign has made it clear he will not attack Reid, as part of the detente the two reached after the 1998 race. Without Ensign's backing and money, any contender has a steeper hill to climb.
"I don't see any strong Republican that could come aboard right now and flex his muscle," said state Sen. Dean Rhoades of Tuscarora, who has represented rural Nevada for 30 years. "We don't have any leader out there right now that would be a capable candidate."
The morning after the Elko dinner, Reid visited the construction site of an interpretive center that will showcase the region western settlers passed through on their way to California.
His trip was part of a rural swing through Pahrump, Winnemucca, Lovelock, Ely and Laughlin. On the ride back into town in his black SUV, Reid grew quiet when asked about the Daschle question.
Then he smiled. "My record is pretty clear," he said as the vehicle headed into downtown Elko. "I've had some close elections. I really, honestly, don't worry about it at all."
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