Thursday, June 05, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Election 2003: Say ahhh

How did a nurse win Ward 1? By playing squeaky clean

By Andrew Kiraly

Janet Moncrief couldn't have engineered a better schtick to play up her fresh-faced political newbie status. Tuesday night at Hurricane Harry's, everyone was signaling, calling out to her: Hold the mic closer. We can't hear what you're saying. And so Janet Moncrief, having wrested the Las Vegas City Council Ward 1 seat from incumbent Michael McDonald, thanked the crowd in a quivering voice: "I want to thank all the voters for tonight," she said. "This is just unbelievable. I'm going to work as hard as I can, really really hard, as hard as I possibly can for you guys." The usual round of congrats, hugs, handshakes and interviews ensued--an easy gauntlet, considering the campaign Moncrief said she weathered to finally walk away with 58 percent of the vote.

"In my wildest dreams I had no idea it could be this dirty," she said. "I don't think I would've run if I had any idea it would be like this. But once I jumped in, my skin got a little bit thicker. This might have been a campaign that was a little bit dirtier than normal, but I just had to learn to be a bigger person and tolerate it. That's politics. And I learned that a lot of the citizens weren't listening to [McDonald's negative campaign material.]"

Apparently not. But it seems they had had enough earfuls of the ethics scandals--or at least the appearance of them--that dogged McDonald right up to Election Day; and those same voters were responsive to Moncrief's late-game push that involved both grassrootsy footwork and high-level strategy. The grassroots came in the form of volunteers like Anne DiMartini, a former Clark County Republican Party vice chairman whose daughter, Jenna, helped with the campaign. "She organized all the kids to walk the district and get the word out," Martini said. "That who I'm here as, the mother of the kids who volunteered for Janet's campaign."

The high-level strategy came in the form of campaign manager and GOP activist Tony Dane, who signed on in the late game. "Shortly after the general [election], when I was being accused of being the brains behind Moncrief's campaign, I figured, well, if someone's going to give me credit, I might as well do something. My only regret is that I didn't get started earlier."

Dane's involvement in the campaign is where Moncrief's squeaky-clean nurse bit started to look a bit flimsy--a fact that apparently didn't faze Ward 1 voters. You might know Dane best as the man who engineered last year's campaign against Assemblyman David Parks, the Legislature's first openly gay lawmaker. Dane's trick: siphon off votes by entering another man named David Parks in the race. (He defends the tack to the hilt: "What I needed to do was draw out some issues, and the issues were drawn out that way."). In a 1996 race in which Dane himself ran against Parks, Dane made an issue of Parks' homosexuality with offensive campaign material that even then-Gov. Bob Miller decried as an all-time low in playing dirty. Irony alert: Dane's strategy this time was to keep it clean and hope McDonald's mudslinging would miss--or even backfire.

"Her relationship with [Bob] Stupak had zero effect on the campaign even though the other side kept hammering it," Dane said. "They tried to make it into something it wasn't."

What about Moncrief only recently relocating to Ward 1? "To me, that was a non-issue," Dane said. "It's a proper hit for the other side, but it's a non-issue as far as what I look for in a candidate. What I look for is ideology, trustworthiness, somebody you are happy to know. A lot of politicians get in and their head swells up. I've worked with a lot of candidates that, once the campaign was over, they became the kind of people I don't want to associate with. When Janet won in the general, it did not affect her in any way. Some hits were called for. Her recently moving into the district was one. Some hits weren't called for, you know, like things that happened 10 years ago."

Moncrief admitted she's no Supernurse. "I've got a lot to learn, I know that," she said, "but I'm a quick learner and I'm ready to work really hard."

Still, against Moncrief's wholesome-healer image, Dane's rein-handling loudly bore out the cliche about strange bedfellows. It wasn't an issue for most voters, but it was enough to plant a seed of doubt in her most vocal supporters.

Take Brian Thornton, a computer specialist, who presented Moncrief with a flag before her victory speech. It's the one that used to fly in his late uncle Christian Thornton's front yard. Thornton decided to throw his support behind Moncrief after he said city inspectors began harassing his uncle over the licensing and upkeep of his two dry-cleaning businesses in Ward 1. Thornton said his uncle suspected McDonald was trying to run him out and replace his businesses with a check-cashing operation and a massage parlor. "I even went to a City Council meeting, but they were just rude to me," he said. Frustrated, Thornton made a website, www.janet4lasvegas.com (not to be confused with her official campaign site, www.janet4vegas.com)

While Moncrief gladhanded her way through the crush of media and well-wishers, Thornton turned to the guy next to him. "What do you think? Do you think she'll stay honest?"

Shrug. Nurses are supposed to be good, right?