Titus may give Porter a run for his money

Wed, Apr 30, 2008 (2:01 a.m.)

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Maybe I was wrong.

I know what you are thinking: Not possible. Or: Not again?

Either way, it might be true. After state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus lost to Jim Gibbons in the 2006 gubernatorial race, I wrote that her career was like Dick Cheney’s erstwhile view of the Iraqi insurgency. But instead of Titus’ political life being in its last throes, the abrupt departure of Robert Daskas from the race against Rep. Jon Porter may have revivified her.

Nobody knows better than political science professor Titus that timing is everything in this game. And she is smart enough to realize that with registration numbers in Congressional District 3 favoring any Democratic candidate, with her name ID much better than Robert Who? and with her performance against Gibbons in CD3 (she won by 2 points there when the district wasn’t so Democratic-friendly), how does she say no?

I don’t think she will, and she is likely to announce within the next day or so.

Remember, Titus defeated Gibbons in Porter’s district after months of being lampooned as Dina Taxes and of falsely being accused by Gibbons of supporting driver’s licenses for immigrants. And professor Titus surely understands that a race for Congress generally evinces more partisan voting patterns than a gubernatorial contest. And the numbers do not lie:

At the end of 2006, Democrats had a 1,907-voter advantage over the Republicans in Porter’s district. The CD3 numbers today: There are 22,500 more Democrats.

Add in a potentially toxic atmosphere for Republicans in 2008, perhaps even more so than in ’06, and Titus will be hard-pressed to demur. Yes, she has rebounded from that gubernatorial loss to get excited about the potential of taking the majority in the state Senate for the first time in her leadership career. But that is far from a certainty, and the lack of a credible challenger to Republican Joe Heck has hurt the Democrats and the chances of knocking off the only other possibly vulnerable Republican, Bob Beers, are no better than 50-50, if that.

Titus also can, for the first time, count on the full support of author Harry Reid, who is sure to bring the good fight to the CD3 race so Porter can’t give him a good fight in 2010. Titus will revel in the deliciousness of having Reid at her beck and call after the Meddler in Chief has blocked her path to other offices before. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

So the path for Titus seems clear on paper. But there are a few buts.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee folks have been on red alert since news of Daskas’ pending withdrawal wafted D.C.-ward late last week. They can murmur now that Daskas was never their first choice he was about the seventh but he was in, was organizing and had banked $450,000. And unlike Titus, he doesn’t have a long legislative record to pick apart, including billions of dollars in tax increases.

That latter issue is the one Dina Taxes has to find a way to navigate, because Porter surely will appropriate the Gibbons theme. How does she do that?

It is true that after scores of ads calling her Dina Taxes, she still defeated Gibbons in CD3. But Porter’s campaign style is to find or manufacture an opponent’s weakness and drive it home: Dario Herrera’s ethics, Tom Gallagher’s carpetbaggery, Tessa Hafen’s faux carpetbaggery. Porter is a relentless message machine and his campaign abilities improve each cycle, so expect him to be as focused on taxes as Gibbons was.

Porter, though, has yet to face an opponent as resourceful and quick as Titus, nor one who so relishes the hurly-burly. Titus, having served with Porter, also knows him well and will not be shy about doing to him what she did to Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson a sustained, occasionally vicious assault on his character and voting record.

I know what some Republicans and even some Democrats are thinking: Titus’ grating Southern accent helped cost her the governor’s race and her style will cause her to lose CD3. But the races are hardly analogous and many voters in CD3, when given the choice between Titus’ unhappy accent and Porter’s Bushian support score, may find the former less offensive.

So maybe I was wrong to have written Titus off in the mercurial world of Nevada politics. We will find out. Assuming Titus enters the race, by November we will know whether I was prescient about her career in 2006 or my crystal ball was cracked.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By thebs

4/30/08 at 9:07 a.m.

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Her style will cause her to lose, Jon?

The reason she lost to Gibbons is because she backed down a bit. Dina Titus was replaced with Dina Tentative. We need the bulldog back!
By NVMakz

4/30/08 at 9:43 a.m.

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I disagree. I felt she was - even in comparison to Gibbons (as a (R)) - "Trashtalkin' Titus". Immature, shrill and simply not of the national demeanor expected of a State's Representative.

Bring the "Bulldog" back, please. That makes her, imo, more beatable.

I understand the Sun's , and Ralston's, desire to pimp her for this - she might wanna try for Governor again. She should pick on the only Nevada State-wide figure which is smaller than she is.

Porter by 10 points easily over Titus, even with the swimming-upstream he'll have to do to counter the Sun's desire to promote Nevada's liberals..........
By Johnathan_Abbinett

4/30/08 at 11:27 a.m.

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I'm convinced that the main reason Dina lost was simply that she ran out of money and could not counter the relentless T.V. air attack from her opponent - it takes money to get out your message and maintain momentum!

Porter has been nothing short of a poltical puppet and bush bag boy!

Veterans in C.D.#3 need to get past Porter's boyish good looks and aw shucks good old boy rhetoric and take a close look at his voting record - Porter is no friend of the Military, Military Families or Veterans!

Porter come home, puts together a small group of vets, blow smoke up their butts and tells them what he thinks they want to hear - and goes back to Washington and votes against the interests of Vets and Military Families. He voted against a pay increase, against body armor, and Porter has voted against much needed increases in the V.A. budget time and time again!

Now that he's up for re-election, he is softening his tone and trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the vets again! Finally, he voted in favor of the New G.I.Bill after voting against it several times - Porter needs to go, and the vets should help vote this bum out!
By thebs

4/30/08 at 1:49 p.m.

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It isn't a statewide race, NVMakz. It's a CD03 race, where Ds outnumber Rs by 21k. And we've already seen what kind of turnout we can expect. Titus by 5 over Porter.

And again, delusional JLA. "Boyish good looks?" Are you confusing Porter with Ensign?
By NVMakz

4/30/08 at 3:32 p.m.

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"JA", good comments. I understand the other side well, having my loving wife, who's a big-lib (and will probably force a Titus event in my home) = I hear it a lot.

When Harry Reid comes home, does he run as the leader of the radical, corrosive, undermining liberal-socialist he has become in DC - living at the Ritz? OR, does he run as "good ol' Harry" - with old-timers in S-light wafting nostalgic on his nickname (Stinky, Snorty, something like that) about being still the Western-independent Democrat of old-school, but with new school crossover..... and on and on?

Look, Titus against Porter is WORSE for Dina than Hafen against Porter was in '06. We know too much about Titus these days.

Porter by 8 (I mis-typed before, but wanted to be honest about it).
By scorpiogal

4/30/08 at 10 p.m.

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Jonathan Abbinett,

Sorry, I’m with thebes on this.
“Boyish good looks?"
Cheezus Chrust.
By Oliver07

5/1/08 at 8:56 a.m.

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One of the things she has going for her is exactly what's going here........she hasn't even officially entered the race, yet she creates interest in the race because she is already a "name". Like her or not, people know who she is and it will bring interest to the race. I personally think the last 2 Dems lost as much because of a lack of interest on the electorate's part than anything else.
By Johnathan_Abbinett

5/4/08 at 1:02 a.m.

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Hey "NVMakz" this is about Porter not anyone else - but, then, trying to change the subject when people bring up the facts is one of the typical, tired tactics of the Republican party that won't work around here anymore!

FACTS: Porter has voted AGAINST pay raises for OUR Troops, Porter has voted AGAINST bonuses for OUR Troops, Porter has voted AGAINST much needed equipment funding for OUR Troops (important things like BODY ARMOR), Porter has voted AGAINST increases for our Military Families and Porter has voted AGAINST fully funding the V.A. and taking care of OUR Diabled Veterans, time and time again - ALL FACTS!

Now, try and fire right back with some more of your silly sophmoric spin - but, before you do, be forewarned Military Affairs, Military Families and Veteran's Issues are my forte and specialty area of expertise - and there are some people keeping track of the FACTS!

Keeping in mind I am a registered voter and citizen of C.D. #3 that has monitored Porter's failure to perform and dereliction of duty on a daily basis for his entire Congressional career as a political puppet and Bush bag-boy!

So, I'll politely remind you that you not only have a 1st Amendment Right to express your opinion, you also have been provided (by people like me) with a 5th Amendment Right to remain silent - this is especially important when you do not know what you're talking about, or just trying to shill for some shmuck that's been outed fairly based on facts!

My apologies "scorpiogal" on second thought I remembered that the guy that pointed out Porter's "boyish good looks" was gay so, forgive me for passing that along - PLEASE?

"Oliver07" I agree, Dina Titus is FAMOUS in this Congressional District - and Porter is about to become INFAMOUS with the 30,000 Vets that live in C.D. #3! Put that on top of the 22,500 Voter advantage Democrats have already!

Not to mention, all the questions we still have unanswered about why Porter has routinely supported Bush and the Unjust War in Iraq?

Oh, yeah, this gonna be better than making money, hanging with my honey and feeling sunny!

Finally, all of the people in C.D. #3 are going to have a Congressional Representative that cares about all of them - not just Porter's wealthy donors!

It's way past time we voted this bum Porter out! If he's really smart (and he's not that bright) he'll cash out, take the money and cut and run just to avoid the very public humiliation that's he's got coming for betraying his oath to OUR Troops, Military Families and Veterans - especially our Disabled Vets!

Frankly, I'm betting he's not smart enough to not run and resign, and I'm going to enjoy watching the RNC and RNCC waste their time and money trying to save his worthless butt!

By the way has everyone noticed we have yet heard a single word directly from Porter? He's already hiding in a hole and trying not to crap his pants!