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Democracy In Peril

By Steve Sebelius

A SECRET RUSE?: The political parlor game of "Will U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons run against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid next year" continues, with that CNN report saying Gibbons will not challenge Nevada's senior senator for the post. The theory was buttressed when Republican consultant Sig Rogich said recently on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" that Rogich, also, doesn't think Gibbons will make the move. (Rogich's office previously denied reports that staffers were helping Reid's re-election bid with fund-raising invitations.)

Gibbons, whose office previously said he'd announce a decision after the July 4 recess, and then said it would be sometime in August, now says the date is unknown. "We don't even have a set date for an announcement because we're not sure what the decision will be," says Gibbons Chief of Staff Robert Uithoven.

We at Democracy in Peril think Gibbons is loving the attention and media speculation, something he got precious little of last time around. (After John Ensign waited a respectable 25 hours to announce he would run for the open seat left vacant by former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan's retirement, Gibbons was totally ignored as a potential candidate. Not so anymore.)

But the fact is this: The longer Gibbons waits, the less time he has to raise money for what surely will be a hard-fought contest. And the longer he waits, the harder it will be for any of the second-tier candidates (and after the congressman, they're all second-tier candidates) to challenge Reid. And the longer he waits, the greater the chances that political pundits will get bored. (Not us at Democracy in Peril, of course. We've got long attention spans.) And thus, the longer he waits, the longer the odds get that he will really challenge Reid.

QUOTABLE: "I am not the meanest mayor. I am the kindest, most gentle soul who ever sat in this chair." --Mayor Oscar Goodman, obviously settling into a brand-new chair at City Hall. Goodman was responding to a new survey by the National Coalition for the Homeless that tagged Las Vegas as the No. 1 meanest city in America when it comes to dealing with homeless people. The ranking was made largely thanks to the mayor's unkind public remarks on the subject.

Steve Sebelius writes a daily e-mail newsletter, the E-Briefing, from which "Democracy in Peril" is excerpted. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com. To subscribe to the E-Briefing at a Mercury reader special price of $20 per year, go to www.reviewjournal.com/ebriefing.