Washington Drags at Lawmakers' Campaigns

By Mark Z. Barabak

Oct. 15, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS —

For 10 years, Jim Gibbons has represented a big chunk of Nevada in Congress, enjoying the advantages of incumbency as he coasted to one easy reelection after another.

But as he tries to move up to statewide office this fall, Gibbons isn’t promoting all those years spent in Washington. Instead, the Republican lawmaker has focused on attacking his Democratic opponent as a tax-raising liberal and talking up his knowledge of Nevada “corner to corner.”

Asked about Congress, Gibbons replied brusquely: “I’m running for governor.” A few moments later, however, he acknowledged, “You’d have to be kidding yourself [to] think that some of these media stories about what’s happening back there aren’t being viewed and watched here.”

Gibbons, a square-jawed former airline pilot, is one of 16 House members -- nine of them Republican -- who have tried to move on to either a governorship or the Senate in this year’s midterm election. Most have struggled in a political climate that nonpartisan pollster Andrew Kohut described as “anti-incumbent, anti-Washington, anti-Republican.”

In Minnesota, where GOP Rep. Mark Kennedy trails badly in his Senate bid, being linked to Congress is like being strapped “to one of those 15th century torture devices” that squeeze tighter and tighter, said University of Minnesota political scientist Lawrence Jacobs.

In Colorado, where Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez is trying to become governor, “the Washington burden” has all but killed his chances, said Floyd Ciruli, an independent polltaker in Denver.

Even here in Nevada, where Gibbons is ahead in polls, Republicans fret that the Mark Foley sex scandal and other frustrations with the GOP-run Congress could depress party turnout and cost them an open governor’s seat in Carson City.

“It’s the ‘X’ factor of 2006,” said Phil Musser, executive director of the Republican Governors Assn., which recently launched a TV ad assailing Gibbons’ Democratic opponent, state Sen. Dina Titus, to help shore up his support. “It’s no secret,” Musser added, “that it’s not the best year to be a member of Congress running.”

Of the 16 House members who have sought higher office this year, two were eliminated in primaries, including Nebraska’s legendary ex-football coach Tom Osborne, who lost to Republican Gov. Dave Heineman in a major upset. Most of the rest are locked in close contests, or else trail far behind their noncongressional opponents. (Two House Democrats running for Senate and governor in Ohio seem to be immune, thanks to the state’s fiercely anti-Republican mood).

It is not just the controversies enveloping the GOP-run Congress that have burdened those seeking a political change of address, though they certainly haven’t helped. Along with Foley, the Florida Republican who abruptly quit when his explicit messages to teenage House pages were made public, three other GOP members of Congress have been forced to resign during the current session, including former Rancho Santa Fe Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who is serving a federal prison term for bribery.

In Iowa, gubernatorial hopeful Jim Nussle, an eight-term Republican congressman, has had to explain the record deficits run up during his years as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Facing a tough challenge from Democratic Secretary of State Chet Culver, Nussle doesn’t talk much about Washington. Instead, he stresses his years as a county prosecutor before being elected to Congress in 1990.

In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. James Doyle has called attention to the unpopular war in Iraq -- unduly politicizing it, critics say -- by flying state flags at half-staff for every Wisconsin soldier killed. He has lately pulled ahead of Republican Rep. Mark Green, who voted to support the invasion.

Democrats, too, are facing guilt by political association with Congress, which is suffering its worst approval ratings in more than a decade.

In Maryland, 10-term Democratic Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin has been blistered by his Republican rival, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, for the 20 years he has spent on Capitol Hill. “What you just watched was the problem of Washington,” Steele said in a recent debate. “They run their mouths, but they do not listen.”

But the larger weight of woes is being borne by Republicans. There are more of them aspiring to higher office, and -- as the party in power -- the GOP represents the status quo, which is not a helpful thing in this restive election season. “If you’re unhappy, [elevating] a member of Congress is probably not the change you have in mind,” said Jennifer Duffy, a nonpartisan analyst with the Cook Political Report.

Even under better circumstances, moving up from the House is rarely easy, said Thad Beyle, a University of North Carolina expert on the nation’s governors, who puts the typical election odds at no better than 50-50. That is because most members of Congress represent only a fraction of their state, requiring them -- however long they have served on Capitol Hill -- to essentially start campaigning from scratch.

Such is the case with Gibbons in Nevada, even though his district -- more than 105,000 square miles, stretching from Reno to the edge of this famously sybaritic city -- is one of the largest congressional districts in the country.

Las Vegas and Clark County make up roughly 65% of the state electorate and have their own Democratic representative in Congress. For Gibbons, who favors cowboy boots along with his monogrammed French cuffs, that means introducing himself to hundreds of thousands of new voters -- not to mention the more than 5,000 new residents arriving here each month. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day, he laments, to shake all those hands.

To win statewide, a Republican needs to minimize losses in the Democratic south, perform well in Reno and Washoe County in the north, and run up the vote in “the rurals,” as the rest of Nevada’s 17 counties are known. To that end, Gibbons has played on long-standing regional resentments, portraying legislator Titus as a Las Vegas politician with little regard for the rest of the state.

Titus has responded by trying to wrap Congress around Gibbons’ neck. Her TV ads have assailed “Washington waste,” and she attacks Gibbons as a failed lawmaker who has not delivered for the state despite his party’s majority status. “He’s forgotten about Nevada,” she said in an interview.

Titus, who has served 18 years in Carson City, contrasted her record on healthcare, environmental issues and balancing budgets -- a requirement under state law -- with the red ink and toxic atmosphere on Capitol Hill. “You don’t see that kind of partisanship in the Legislature,” she said in a Georgia twang that some Nevadans consider a liability.

Gibbons, who served in the Legislature before going to Congress, scoffed at the comparison. “Being in Carson City is like playing slow-pitch softball with your best friends,” he said. Working in Washington is like “playing shortstop in a hardball, fast-pitch game in the third game of the World Series.”

Though serving in Congress may be nothing to brag about this election season, Gibbons said his ability to perform at both levels should count for something. “I think voters in the state of Nevada are quite smart and they will analyze their needs ... and make a choice based on who they think is the best candidate for the job,” Gibbons said.

Not, he suggested, on events 2,500 miles away.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Up or out

Sixteen House members have sought to move on to a governorship or the U.S. Senate in this year’s midterm election.

Fourteen face voters in November:

* Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., running for governor

* Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, running for U.S. Senate

* Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., running for U.S. Senate

* Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla., running for governor

* Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., D-Tenn., running for U.S. Senate

* Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., running for governor