An old Nevada memory to share

By Lisa Mascaro

Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Sometimes, it seems, so many roads intersect in Nevada.

A couple of years ago, as an interview was wrapping up with Sen. Edward Kennedy at his office in the stately Russell Building across from the Capitol, the powerful American icon who had been generous with his time offered one last story.

You know, he said, he had spent time in Nevada during his brother’s 1960 presidential campaign, when he was organizing in the Western states.

“I was out in Las Vegas, I was in Nevada. That was one of my states,” he said.

With Kennedy, who died last week, history was always just a moment away.

His office walls were covered with pictures and posters and paintings representing some of the most recognizable moments and figures in American politics. The Kennedy family and all they represent were alive there — past and present merged in the senator’s passionate hopes for the future.

“I was at the old Sands Hotel,” Kennedy recalled that day. He talked about driving out to the airport, marveling at the patrons playing slots. “All those nickel slot machines at the airport.”

The Massachusetts senator’s death triggered many stories.

Ralph Denton was Nevada chairman of the Kennedy-Johnson campaign in 1960, the year John F. Kennedy turned the state momentarily blue. Nevada has long been a swing state, and historians say the Kennedys targeted the Silver State early in the campaign, hoping to put it in JFK’s column.

Denton remembers meeting Teddy Kennedy as work got under way on the campaign.

“He was a nice boy,” Denton said Friday from Southern Nevada.

Denton remembered spending time with the younger Kennedy on the road as they tooled up north for campaign speeches. Historians say John Kennedy made several speeches early in the campaign in Nevada, including at the Legislature in Carson City.

“I took a couple of trips with him up to Reno,” Denton said.

Years passed, lives changed, people moved on.

Several years later, Denton said, he received a telephone call. Teddy Kennedy was on the line, seeking his counsel in shoring up support for a leadership race in the Senate. Kennedy, he recalled, thought he might have the backing of one of Nevada’s senators but could use some help with the other.

Denton said he got to work, organizing 50 residents to send telegrams to the Nevada senator’s office expressing support for Teddy Kennedy.

Kennedy, of course, won the party leadership post.

When the senator ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980, Denton again made the trip north to see the candidate at a campaign event. After waiting in line, he said hello to Kennedy.

“I said, ‘I’m Ralph Denton, Senator,’ ” he recalled. The senator smiled in recognition.

Denton, however, thought Kennedy would not be able to win the party nomination that year. “I didn’t support him.”

Denton recalled with fondness those early days, though, two young guys working a campaign.

“A few times he was here, we went out to the Sands and had cocktails. He was just a damn nice guy,” he said, “a really down-to-earth guy.”

Denton added: “I’ve been proud of him and his accomplishments in the Senate.”

Kennedy, too, seemed to remember his time in Nevada with a bit of nostalgia as he retold the short story, nearly 50 years later, in his office on the Hill.

He marveled, too, at Vegas’ transformation over the years into a family destination and a community of its own.

When his work there came to an end, Kennedy recalled, “I drove back across the West. It’s a long drive. A long, long drive.”