Rory Reid gets serious early in 2010 race for governor

One sign Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid is in it to win it: He's had a campaign manager on the payroll since early May, which is pretty early for a gubernatorial election in November 2010.

"That's telling you you have too much money in your campaign account," one Republican laughed.

Reid's likely Democratic primary opponent, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, hasn't hired a campaign manager. For her it's too early. "The legislative session ended just three weeks ago. Right now, I'm in the process of evaluating a potential run and meeting with supporters and consultants."

Notice she said "potential run." Buckley is giving herself some wiggle room to change her mind about running for governor against the son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

If she doesn't run, Rory Reid would be able to save some of the buckets of money he has raised and, instead of spending it in a primary, use it in a general election against the yet-to-be-chosen Republican.

Now does any of this sound familiar? A liberal Democratic woman challenges a more conservative Mormon Democratic man in a Democratic primary? She wins the primary and loses the general to a Republican seemingly loaded with baggage. Do the names Dina Titus, Jim Gibson and Jim Gibbons ring any bells? Can you remember 2006?

Some contend former Henderson Mayor Gibson was more Republican in his stances than Democratic, so the parallel doesn't exactly fit, and that a Reid-Buckley Democratic primary would be one where the two candidates are likely to be more in sync on a variety of issues.

Reid's new campaign manager, David Chase Cohen, said it's unlikely in a Reid-Buckley matchup that there would be much of the "I wouldn't have voted like he/she did." Instead of looking backward at voting records, he said it's more likely to shake down as a campaign looking forward at ideas.

Cohen, 32, originally from Massachusetts, was the campaign manager of Democrat Jill Derby in 2006 when she ran closer than expected against Republican Dean Heller in the Northern Nevada congressional district.

In 2008, Cohen was Nevada state director for Barack Obama during the Democratic caucus, initially putting him at odds with Reid, who was working for Hillary Clinton and joined the Obama campaign after she lost the nomination.

After the caucus, Cohen advanced to the national campaign. He was deputy national director of voter contact and then manager of general election direct mail in 16 battleground states.

Cohen said he doesn't know yet how the campaign will distinguish Reid from Buckley, but a candidate's accomplishments should be considered. The commission is a collaborative effort and it's hard to credit Reid exclusively, but I asked for three of Reid's accomplishments.

Since he hasn't been Reid's campaign manager very long, I can't be too critical when he named three but couldn't tell me Reid's exact role. But after checking with Reid, Cohen fleshed out three areas where Reid showed leadership and was involved from start to finish.

I'm probably previewing a direct mail piece, but Cohen credited the county commissioner in these three areas:

• Reid headed a 25-member county task force early this year to ensure Southern Nevada got its fair share of federal stimulus funding.

• Reid was personally involved in getting the parties together to help establish the public-private partnership between the University Medical Center, the Nevada Cancer Institute and Kirk Kerkorian's Lincy Foundation to reinstitute outpatient cancer treatments at UMC.

• Reid spearheaded reforming county ethics laws by reconvening the county's Ethics Task Force. The commission adopted a package of ethics rules prohibiting former county commissioners from lobbying their former colleagues for a year after leaving office, limiting the value of gifts county commissioners could accept, and requiring formal reporting of conflict-of-interest disclosures by commissioners and county employees.

Early polling indicates Cohen may need to work less on distinguishing Rory Reid from Barbara Buckley and more on distinguishing Rory Reid from Harry Reid because the son's negatives are higher than expected, with 25 percent viewing him unfavorably in the Review-Journal's May poll. Only 9 percent viewed Buckley unfavorably while 50 percent viewed Harry Reid unfavorably.

If Nevadans really are confusing the two Reids, and the dad's negatives are spilling over to his son, Rory Reid and David Chase Cohen really aren't starting to campaign too soon.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.