What we can expect from candidate Rory Reid

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.

Today is the first day of the rest of Rory Reid’s political life.

No longer is he a county commissioner unofficially running for governor; tonight he makes it official.

No longer is he a guy incessantly talking about having a vision for the state; tonight he begins to unveil that vision.

And no longer is he Harry Reid’s son with Dad’s specter overshadowing his every move; tonight he tries (and this might be the most difficult journey of all and may be the key to his success) to step out of that shadow.

Reid the Younger has been, as a noncandidate, the most prolific fundraiser in Nevada this year aside from Reid the Elder (and he actually may have taken in more in-state than Dad), raking in more than $3 million, more than the rest of the field combined. And with Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley eschewing a primary challenge, Reid the Younger can pray Mayor Oscar Goodman is more besotted with Bombay Sapphire than the thought of being governor, thus allowing the commissioner to coast to the nomination.

It is to Reid’s credit that he has chosen the path of most resistance by preparing to release the contours of what he is calling “A New Vision for Nevada,” the slogan advertised on the flyer hyping his announcement this evening at his former elementary school, Doris Hancock. With no primary opponents, Reid could simply have chosen to disgorge platitudes and play it safe until the general election campaign.

But, those close to him say, he actually will begin to outline a vision tonight, presenting thematic approaches that will later, we hope, be filled in by detailed policy proposals. I am sure his spinmeisters will hype this as the first time this has ever been done in a gubernatorial race. But Dan Hart, a longtime counselor to Reid the Younger, surely recalls that Jan Jones, whose campaign for governor he ran, unloaded plenty of white papers on the media only to find herself red-faced come Election Day.

This is not new, so let’s hope at least it’s substantive. And compared with what we have seen from the GOP contenders so far, Reid does not have a high bar to leap over.

Reid surely knows that his opponents and the media will tear apart his proposals or caricature them, thus underlining the risk he is taking by doing this so early. Yes, the danger is mitigated by his lack of a primary challenge, but it is only October and filing doesn’t open until March.

So what will he say? Here is what I hear:

The document may well be seen as a pro-business manifesto, a call to create jobs, diversify the economy and cherry-pick the best ideas from other states. (Politics could be playing a role here, of course, because without a primary, Reid may not feel as much of an imperative to pander to the far left and seem more moderate tonight. Thank you, Speaker Buckley.)

One insider described the Reid manifesto thusly: “He will have interesting ideas to create jobs. He wants to create a computer-literate workforce, show connectivity to the world.”

Reid also surely will have ideas on renewable energy to juice up the economy — who doesn’t these days? And we surely will not be spared shibboleths about how the state has failed to diversify the economy or how much waste and fraud there is in government.

That’s de rigueur.

As business-friendly as his vision may seem, don’t expect Reid to have Grover Norquist at his announcement. There will be no “no new taxes” promises, no signing of the written pledge. If he did make any such reflexive promises or put pen to paper on the pledge, anything else he said would be suspect. On the other hand, there will be no unfurling of a tax plan, either — Reid won’t commit political suicide at his announcement.

With all the rote statements candidates present from national party talking points or the knee-jerk partisanship characterizing much of the discourse today, let’s hope we hear something different tonight. Maybe it won’t be as substantive as we hope — is it ever? — but perhaps it will at least verge on originality. Maybe it will even set the tone for the campaign. Thus endeth the Pollyanna portion of our program.

Reid is seasoned enough and has watched his father long enough to know we Fourth Estaters might be snide and cynical tonight. But Reid the Younger must realize that he shouldn’t worry about the first day of the rest of his political life being his worst. He should fret much more if the first day is later seen as his best.