Myers: Laxalt gets the nod for governor

It’s hard to believe, but just 12 weeks after one of the most unpleasant elections in history, Nevada journalists were writing last week about the election two years from now.

Republican Adam Laxalt, who spent his life back east as the son of a D.C. lobbyist and then showed up in Nevada to create himself a political base, triggered the premature journalistic coverage by bragging that – very much with the help of his eastern friends – he had raised $1.2 million in 2016, a year when he was running for nothing. Raising money while not running for office is one of those practices that seem normal to politicians and strange to everyone else.

A message sent to supporters and others (written, of course, in the royal “we”) read in part, “This morning, we were thrilled to announce our record-breaking campaign report. … It is humbling to receive this kind of financial support this far out from the next election. But, it shows that our message and hard work is resonating across Nevada. As you are probably aware, there has been considerable speculation in the media as to my political future – namely, whether I will run for governor in 2018 or for re-election as your attorney general. While I have not yet made that decision, please know that whatever I do, I will continue to fight on behalf of all Nevadans to protect our state and our citizens.”

Two days after Laxalt’s big money announcement, another Republican – U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei – took his name out of the 2018 governor’s race. Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller had dropped out of the governor’s race a couple of weeks earlier.

Just like that, Adam Laxalt became the Republican nominee for governor in 2018. And he’d better take it, too. After he ran everyone else out of the race, the state GOP organization will want a darned good explanation if Laxalt now fails to run.

Smart politicians don’t do it that way. They maintain their flexibility while charting the terrain ahead. If 2018 shapes up as a Democratic year, Laxalt now has no easy exit.

Laxalt is the grandson of Paul Laxalt, former Nevada governor and U.S. senator. The senior Laxalt, whose campaign slogan in Nevada was “One of Us,” never returned to Nevada to live after retiring from politics in 1987. His grandson spent years rubbing elbows with the GOP rich and famous, and after moving to Nevada, he has called on them regularly for fund-raising help. They include a murderer’s row of bad policymakers with names like Cheney, Bolton, Gingrich, Meese, Rumsfeld.

Adam Laxalt himself has some obstacles. The Nevada casino industry has spent a bundle cultivating a gay customer base. The anti-gay Laxalt has left a trail of gay-bashing quotes behind him.

This is also an urban state (currently third most urban, according to the Census Bureau) trending Democratic. Laxalt was lucky not to be on the ballot in 2016, when Democrats won the presidential race, three of four U.S. House seats, a U.S. Senate seat, and ballot questions went the way Laxalt advised Nevadans not to vote.

One of his assets is Nevada journalists, who seem bewitched by Laxalt and his connections. Most of the coverage of Laxalt has been political and soft. It has not included particularly rigorous scrutiny of the job he is doing as attorney general or his views of public policy, but lots of emoting over his war chest. He remains today pretty unknown except in name recognition.

Presumably, he is keeping all his political has-beens warmed up to raise money for him again. After all, he has painted himself into a corner.

Dennis Myers is an award-winning journalist who has reported on Nevada’s capital, government and politics for several decades. He has also served as Nevada’s chief deputy secretary of state.