John Ensign

LAS VEGAS - Monday, The Las Vegas Review-Journal finished publishing the results of a Nevada poll, conducted Jun. 9-11 by Mason-Dixon.  Here's a brief rundown of the poll's finding.

Presidential campaign

John McCain (R) - 44%

Barack Obama (D) - 42%

Undecided - 14%

LAS VEGAS-With the announcement last week by the Nevada Republican Party that it has chosen Jul. 26 to reconvene its first, unsuccessful convention, controversies remain for Ron Paul supporters and previously voted-on delegates that could lead all the way to the Republican National Convention in September.

Supporters of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) hope to host a form of make-up convention on Jun. 28 and believe that if they achieve a quorum of the previous Apr. 26 convention attendees they may be able to elect a slate of delegates that could be seated at the national convention. 

The effort, which is thus far being bankrolled by Reno dentist and Paul supporter Dr. Wayne Terhune, is sanctioned by the Ron Paul campaign and is being organized largely over Web sites like Meetup and Digg.com.

In order for their Jun. 28 date to have any chance of electing delegates that will actually be seated, however, Paul supporters will have to overcome enormous strategic and legal hurdles that will test the burgeoning power of netroots-fueled movements like Paul's.

LAS VEGAS-Following the Department of Energy's filing of a license application this morning for the spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada's congressional delegation released a joint press release condemning the project and vowing to continue fighting against it.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the head of the delegation, said that the license application was "supposed to be filed years ago" and is "shoddy at best."

"The application, which includes designs that are only 35% complete, lacks critical information that cannot simply be overlooked," said Reid.  "For example, just how would the Energy Department respond in the event of an emergency?  We can't answer that question because the Department doesn't even know. "

Will John Ensign at least consider a run for Governor in 2010?  With incumbent Jim Gibbons looking less and less like a re-election candidate, there is a tiny bit of talk among Republicans that the GOP should run Ensign, their best vote-getter.  There is some precedent here: New Jersey’s Jon Corzine was the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2004, and when his part failed to pick up Senate seats, he opted to run for Governor in 2005 – and appoint his own successor to the U.S. Senate.  Idaho’s Dirk Kempthorne (now U.S. Secretary of the Interior) and California’s Pete Wilson left the Senate to run for Governor.

U.S. Senator John Ensign.LAS VEGAS-In a conference call today regarding Ill. Sen. Barack Obama's visit to Nevada, U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said he believes that Obama lacks the experience and judgment necessary to be president and accused Obama of a "John Kerry-type" of flip-flop.

"Nevada is still-it's a right-of-center state," said Ensign.  "It may be slightly right-of-center, but it certainly does not match up with Barack Obama, who is the most liberal member of the United States Senate."

Ensign hit Obama on taxes, foreign policy and Obama's plan to address the home foreclosure crisis.

BOULDER CITY-U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks to a Memorial Day gathering at the Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, sponsored by the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Reid, along with Gov. Jim Gibbons, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jon Porter presents Sergeant Sharon Dixon of the Nevada National Guard the Purple Heart.

BOULDER CITY-U.S. Sen. Jon Ensign speaks to a Memorial Day gathering at the Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, sponsored by the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Ensign repeated the story of a lone survivor of a Navy Seal team, ambushed by Taliban in Afghanistan.

Don't expect Nevada's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's 50 members on whether they'd consider accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign respond?

If Senate Minority Leader Dana Titus wins her race for Congress against Jon Porter, some Democratic insiders say that Titus will take a pass on the 2010 race for Governor – a contest she came reasonably close to winning in 2006.  Titus would probably spend at least two terms in the House, and could wind up as the leading candidate to challenge U.S. Senator John Ensign in 2012.  Titus’ House candidacy could be a huge boon to the ’10 gubernatorial prospects of Secretary of State Ross Miller.

In New Jersey, John Ensign is settling for his third choice in the race for U.S. Senate
Add New Jersey to the list of states where John Ensign has meddled and lost. The National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman made a brief foray into Garden State politics last week when he sought to clear the field for John Crowley, a biotech millionaire with an incredibly compelling life story, to enter the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

After Crowley’s first announcement last Monday that he wasn’t running, Ensign engineered a full-court press to get him in the race. He had John McCain and five other Republican U.S. Senators call him. He promised him money and pledged to make 84-year-old incumbent Frank Lautenberg an NRSC target. And for a while, it looked like Crowley would run.

But by the weekend, Crowley decided -- for business, family and military (he’s a Navy reservist) reasons – that he could not transition his life into politics by today’s New Jersey filing deadline. On Sunday, a spokesman announced Crowley’s second withdrawal in seven days.