Titus scores a personal comeback

After losing ’06 governor’s race, she beats incumbent in House

Sam Morris

State Sen. and now Congresswoman-elect Dina Titus greets supporters at the Nevada State Democratic Party election night party Tuesday at the Rio.

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact), Michael Mishak (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Republican Watch Party at the Palazzo

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The Republican Watch Party Election night at the Palazzo.

Democratic Watch Party at Rio

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People attending the Democratic Watch Party awaited results from the presidential election and state congressional races.

Election Day in Las Vegas

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Get the results of Tuesday's races

Fiercely contested race comes to living rooms (10-16-2008)

Will Nevada be better or worse off in 4 years?

After Dina Titus lost the 2006 governor’s race to Jim Gibbons, who’d been accused of assaulting a women and other ethical misdeeds, she seemed to have lost some faith in politics.

She had been outspent 2-to-1 and pummeled with negative ads, and despite a Democratic wave across the country, she drew just 44 percent of the vote. She lashed out at rural voters, and her political future seemed uncertain, at best. Fellow Democrats saw her as a divisive figure.

Yet when a Democratic candidate for the Third Congressional District suddenly dropped out of the race this year, Democrats wooed her to take on Rep. Jon Porter.

This time, she ran a careful and disciplined campaign, listened to seasoned advisers and rode the Democratic wave, helped along by ample Democratic money from outside the state.

The campaign wasn’t much, really, and in fact it seems she won far fewer votes than Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama. Still, she avoided mistakes and capitalized on the problems that have come to plague the state Republican Party, which was unable to help Porter defend his seat.

Before the race got going, Porter and those close to him knew he was in trouble. Just how much was unclear until last night.

The three-term incumbent’s loss to Titus was foretold this summer, in the thick of the political doldrums. A Republican operative close to Porter’s campaign said the congressman, realizing he was in the toughest fight of his career, had become obsessed with his reelection, micromanaging, sending e-mails and making phone calls in the middle of the night.

The reasons were clear: Democrats, benefiting from their early presidential caucus and the general election campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, had built a 25,000-voter registration edge in the district, one they would eventually increase to nearly 39,400, which would prove insurmountable.

Also, the political environment for Republicans, saddled with an unpopular president and a worsening economy, was growing increasingly toxic across the country. The party’s prospective standard-bearer, Sen. John McCain, had failed to excite the rank and file. His Nevada campaign, which got a late start, proved even less inspiring.

And Porter, the operative said, could hardly look to the Nevada Republican Party for help. After years of political dominance up and down the ticket, the party had lost its organizational edge. Its titular head, Gibbons, was beset with personal problems and terrible approval ratings and couldn’t campaign or raise money; Porter couldn’t be seen with him.

At the same time, state Democrats, working with the Obama campaign, toiled methodically to build their best ground game in modern memory. Part of that was staging well-orchestrated protests outside Porter’s Henderson office. A Republican operative close to Porter, incensed at the lack of Republican response, called a state party staff member to complain. The worker was busy buying a car, he said.

The source also said the state party had frittered away what little money it gained from its early caucus, spending as much as $80 a voter on registration, while continuing to fall farther and farther behind. With the writing on the wall, Porter’s campaign saw little choice but to build its own ground efforts and wage a campaign almost exclusively negative.

Porter made a valiant effort, using a vicious — and often misleading — ad campaign of personal attacks on Titus. He accused her falsely of “double dipping,” or taking a legislative and university salary at the same time. (Titus is a political science professor at UNLV, from which she always taken unpaid leaves of absence.)

But the district seemed to grow more and more disenchanted with Porter, his favorable ratings hovering at 40 percent — dangerous territory for an incumbent.

When Porter considers his three terms in Washington, he will no doubt wonder whether he could have done more for his own district, especially during his first two terms, when he hewed closely to Republican Party orthodoxy in a highly partisan Congress.

Still, Porter’s career isn’t necessarily finished. National Republicans will begin hunting — today — for a candidate to take on U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010. Porter is an aggressive fund-raiser and doesn’t mind the attack politics that will be the central feature of any campaign against Reid.

As Titus knows all too well today, two years is a lifetime in politics.

Discussion: 14 comments so far…

By Fccfirstclass

11/5/08 at 4:14 a.m.

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Congrats to Obama and Titus and all the Campain For Change workers. I was able to help yesterday and was very impressed with the way it was organized. I hope that people here will now get involved at a new level.
By Ruthie2411

11/5/08 at 5:58 a.m.

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It was such an exciting evening at the RIO, waiting for the results to come in. President-elect Obama was able to quiet the audience so all of us could hear him. It was handled very well as the hold campaign has been for the past year & half. Congratulations to the winners & especially Dina Titus. We are sorry that we could not be there at 2 a.m. when she was finally able to announce her win. It was so well deserved! Rita
By Sunvisitor

11/5/08 at 6:50 a.m.

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Way to go, Dina. Congratulations!
By jfnance32

11/5/08 at 7:18 a.m.

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She is going from being a big fish in a small pond to a tiny fish in a big pond.

She will be on the bottom of food chain and it will take years for her to climb up.

Every 2 years she will have to fight tooth and nail for her seat.

Most parties that gain the presidency often lose seats in the first election cycle after winning.

She will not have the benefit of a presidential election in 2010 to drive up turnout.

If she votes as a big lib then she will lose votes at home.
By johnevegas

11/5/08 at 7:25 a.m.

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Hi Dina. We met at McCarran one day. Perhaps you remember?

I'm the guy who threw his bags in the air and chased you through the airport yelling "Dina Titus! Dina Titus! Look Everyone!!! It's Dina Titus!!!"?

I remember how impressed I was with you that day. Your speed up the escalator by the C gates was amazing, and the strength with which you launched bag after bag at me from carousel 14 was really incredible. You will need those skills in Washington.

Good luck to you. I'll be watching. :)
By texexnv

11/5/08 at 7:40 a.m.

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Congrats and Best wishes to Dina Titus. She will do well representing CD3 as long as she doesn't forget who sent her there...
By gmag39

11/5/08 at 8:26 a.m.

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I hope this is a message to candidates that stupid, insipid, misleading campaign advertising has it's limits. But being realistic, I expect the same crap from the candidates in the next election. John Porter, I would like to think, had a big hand in his own undoing. Same for the cranky, cantankerous Bob Beers. Good riddance.
By asylum1

11/5/08 at 8:50 a.m.

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As I wrote in another comment, I'm new to Las Vegas politics. With that in mind, the only thing I knew for certain about Mr. Porter through his campaign was that he was a Republican. He didn't run on a platform on what he stood for, instead, it was an all-out attack on Mrs. Titus. I must say that, to me, it was the most disgusting and negative campaign I've ever seen, and I've lived throughout the U.S. (northeast, southeast and southwest). I felt embarrassed for Mr. Porter and his desperation.
By jfnance32

11/5/08 at 9:13 a.m.

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The Copening campaign was much more negative and disgusting then the Porter campaign.
By The_Onion

11/5/08 at 2:48 p.m.

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Dina Titus is going to be a GREAT representative for Nevada and will no doubt help bring the CHANGE we all desire to Washington. From Wall Street to Main Street, we will all be so much better off in the next two years. The enthusiasm and hard work that she and other new representatives like her will bring to Congress is exciting and a breath of fresh air for Americans.

On a somber note, its too bad Joe Heck lost such a close race against an opponent that never showed her face. As negative as things got against Beers, who frankly, deserved it, Heck's race was no walk in the park.

I think that Steven Horsford and Bill Raggio will have a great working relationship and that Buckley will work diligently with them to bring our state out of the financial wreck it is in. "No New Taxes" Gibbons will be overrun and forced to support a more fair and equitable tax structure that ensures a more secure revenue stream. He will meet the same fate as George H. W. Bush and lose big time in 2010.

McCain can now hopefully return to Congress being the real Maverick and leader he has shown us he can be. With the prospect of being President now out of reach, he can focus on being the reformer we all knew and loved in 2000.

By the way, Palin who?
By jfnance32

11/5/08 at 3:36 p.m.

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""No New Taxes" Gibbons will be overrun and forced to support a more fair and equitable tax structure that ensures a more secure revenue stream. "

Too bad, no Democrat had the guts to run on a "I gonna raise taxes" pledge.

How are the Democrats going to claim a raise taxes mandate when none claim to do so during the campaign?
By gmag39

11/5/08 at 4:03 p.m.

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Yes, Nance, too bad we couldn't have added a space on the ballot to recall Gov Gibbons, and replace him with someone with an ounce of common sense and decency and a vision for Nevada's future beyond his mantra of "no new taxes." Any no-new-tax pledge by a candidate carries with it the implicit knowledge that none will be needed, and that we'll just make cuts at any cost if necessary to balance the books. That's not leadership. That's not governing. It's accounting. If the Gov's job is being an accountant, why don't we call him such?
By gmag39

11/5/08 at 4:20 p.m.

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nance, I also come from a state where the word "Governor" is synonymous with "Goofball".
In Minnesota, we of course most recently had Jessie Ventura. Back aways, we had a guy on the cover of Time Magazine with the headline: Governor Goofy. Good old Rudy Perpich. There have been many others, beleive me. So I'm very familiar with goofy Gov's.
By jfnance32

11/5/08 at 5:19 p.m.

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The were no Democrats that made a "Raise Taxes" Pledge.

So how can they claim a mandate to raise taxes?

Also, Governor's veto of a tax bill is not material. To pass a tax increase bill in the first place is the same amount of votes needed to override of a veto.

The Governor can not stop a tax increase bill from being passed.