Thursday, March 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Strange bedfellows

Sen. Harry Reid finds improbable friend in bid for a fourth term

By Geoff Schumacher

Despite a long list of accomplishments and a position of considerable seniority and influence in Washington, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., likely will find himself in a tough race next year as he seeks a fourth term. After all, Reid brought roughly the same cards to the table in 1998 when he campaigned for a third term, yet defeated Republican John Ensign by just 400 votes. The increasingly Republican bent of Nevada's voting population--and the perception in rural Nevada that Reid is a no-good liberal--means any major challengers to his throne will have a legitimate chance to beat him.

Surely 2004 will differ from 1998 in a variety of ways. One potentially important one is that Reid may have found a new ally in the unlikeliest of places.

Last month, Reid spoke at a ceremony dedicating the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. The 48,438-acre conservation area at the south end of the Las Vegas Valley was created by a law Reid helped pass called the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act. Sloan Canyon is one of several areas in Southern Nevada that were protected from development because of their natural and cultural attributes. The canyon is loaded with hundreds of Indian petroglyphs.

At the ceremony, Reid went out of his way to credit Review-Journal Publisher Sherman Frederick with urging him to protect Sloan Canyon. As Reid related, he, Frederick and Del Webb executive Scott Higginson had visited the canyon together in the late 1990s, sparking the idea to preserve it.

Frederick's involvement in the early stages of the Sloan Canyon project surely must have come as a surprise to some, since his newspaper is staunchly conservative and has questioned and criticized Reid on many issues. But Frederick isn't as easy to peg on political issues as his editorial pages often are, and he's a longtime admirer of Nevada's natural areas.

Higginson, a former Las Vegas city councilman, was instrumental in getting the process going, Frederick notes. "Agreeing that the canyon needed fast action, he arranged for Sen. Reid and I to hike through the canyon with BLM experts," Frederick says. "I was skeptical about whether Sen. Reid had the clout to make it happen. Though Reid seemed genuinely interested and he pledged to help, getting the federal government to move quickly is not easy, especially when it comes to public lands."

Frederick says he was impressed by the way Reid handled the issue: "No press releases announcing his intention to protect this important site. No grandstanding. He just rolled his sleeves up and got to work behind the scenes. I was amazed that in less than 24 months, he made it happen."

As a result, Frederick says he has newfound respect for the senator. "The experience has caused me to rethink the meaning of power and seniority in Congress," he says. "Reid is probably the most powerful elected Nevadan...ever. He may be one of the top 20 most powerful men on the planet. But after he failed to stop Yucca Mountain, I was quite vocal in expressing to my Democrat friends that Reid's power was limited and therefore should not be a big factor when he next comes up for election. He won his last election by less than 400 votes; he will be in jeopardy again, despite his lofty position in Washington. But after Sloan, I'm changing my mind. For even the most senior in Washington, our form of government limits power. When it comes to issues like Yucca Mountain, a guy like Reid is eventually reduced to one vote out of 100. But on issues like this canyon, Sen. Reid's seniority makes him king. Not only could he get the land protected, he could do it inside of 24 months. That was big because any longer and the quality of Sloan would have deterioriated."

More often than not, Frederick's Review-Journal endorses conservative political candidates. The newspaper's editorial writers have a distinctly libertarian philosophy of limited government and laissez-faire economics, making it awkward for them to support Democrats. To the R-J, Reid is in the same league as Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, just another bleeding heart propping up the welfare state.

But Frederick tends to be more pragmatic. For example, when the issue of whether the Southern Nevada Water Authority should buy out Nevada Power Co. came up last year, the editorial writers and Frederick were at such odds that they wrote dueling editorials on the subject, with Frederick advocating a government-run power company.

Now, Frederick, impressed with Reid's performance on Sloan Canyon, suggests the R-J may support Reid for re-election no matter who the GOP puts up against him. "It makes me ask my Republican friends, why give up that kind of power?" Frederick says. "As far as I'm concerned, the GOP is going to have to make an awfully compelling case."

It's an open question whether voters pay attention to newspaper endorsements anymore. Once upon a time, when newspapers were the main source of news and commentary in a community, endorsements carried substantial weight. Certainly that influence has declined in recent decades amid the expanse of media options.

Still, most politicians actively seek newspaper endorsements, assuming they have at least some effect on an election's outcome. Don't doubt for a minute that Reid will be happy to hear that he appears to have won over the publisher of the state's largest newspaper.

The Las Vegas Mercury is owned by Stephens Media Group, the same company that owns the Review-Journal.