Will Amodei, facing another election in 2012, veer right?

By Anjeanette Damon

Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011 | 2 a.m.

In Nevada politics, story lines often repeat themselves.

Here’s one: A moderate, populist Republican from Carson City is elected to represent Nevada’s most Republican district in Congress, goes to Washington, D.C., and turns more conservative to stave off a primary challenge.

Sen. Dean Heller took that path after surviving a brutal GOP primary that featured a well-funded television campaign labeling him a tax-and-spend liberal — a label he appeared eager to dispel once he arrived in Washington. During his four years in Congress, Heller deployed fiery rhetoric on immigration and amassed a voting record that often put him to the right of the Republican president and his party’s leaders.

Now, voters of Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District have elected another moderate, populist Republican from Carson City. To win the district in a special election prompted by Heller’s appointment to the Senate, Mark Amodei has tacked right — signing a pledge never to raise taxes despite supporting taxes as a state senator.

But now that he is in Washington — where Republican leaders are doing constant battle with a contingent of Tea Party Republicans intent on pulling the party to the right — will Amodei shed his moderate populism to keep the seat?

Amodei easily won the special election, but the 2012 campaign season has begun. What that will bring Amodei — a primary challenge from the right, another Democrat who thinks there’s a shot in the GOP district — has yet to unfold, but few believe he’ll go unchallenged.

His voting record, and his rhetoric, could well reflect that.

“Is Sharron Angle breathing down his neck? Probably,” one Republican source said. “I don’t think she has much of a chance, but Amodei certainly doesn’t have any grace period.”

Angle has become the symbol of a challenge from the right. And that challenge could be more than symbolic.

Indeed, Angle’s spokesman Jerry Stacy issued a veiled warning last week on KRNV, Channel 4 in Reno.

“What is important now is that Amodei pays close attention to his constituents in this district and gives them the representation that they want if he expects to keep this job,” Stacy said, noting that Angle’s options for 2012 are still open.

Robert Uithoven, a Republican strategist who began his political career as a staffer for Jim Gibbons in CD2, scoffed at the idea of Angle challenging Amodei.

“I don’t think there is a Republican in the state who is afraid of Sharron Angle any more,” he said.

Angle isn’t the only conservative Republican in the state, however. Former Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, who challenged Amodei for the party nomination, might throw his hat in the ring again, although he has likely has turned his attention elsewhere.

Amodei’s past support for taxes and collective bargaining could make him an appealing target.

But those closer to Amodei say they worry more about a lack of discipline, rather than a failure to vote a conservative line, could be the more likely cause of trouble at the polls next year.

Amodei is known as a laid back guy who likes to engage in casual conversation but who can be difficult to keep on message. When he was a state senator, he earned a reputation for sneaking out the back door — to which his seat was strategically close — during floor sessions.

And on election night, he ignored his advisers who had planned to keep him stowed away with a handful of important campaign donors until the race had been called and he could give a prepared speech.

Instead, he ditched the donors and went to mingle with the masses, where reporters were waiting to catch his every word.

And that carefully prepared campaign speech? Out the window entirely.

Amodei’s campaign spokesman Peter DeMarco said he wouldn’t expect Amodei to find a contrived path to the right, but his votes will reflect the conservative nature of the district.

“I don’t think he’ll have to consciously reinvent who he is,” DeMarco said. “He’ll take all the information in, get all the details and then make his decision. He’s not somebody to just all of the sudden fall off the sanity wagon and try to be something he’s not.”