Open Seat in Nevada’s Congressional Delegation Will Prompt Special Election

Republican Nevada Sen. John Ensign’s surprise resignation announcement last Thursday opened the door for the state’s governor, Brian Sandoval, also a Republican, to appoint a replacement. Now that Sandoval has chosen 2nd district Republican Rep. Dean Heller to fill out the rest of Ensign’s term, the state must schedule the first special election in its 147-year history.
 
The scandal-plagued Ensign, whose conduct around an affair with a former staffer was under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, had already announced that he would not seek re-election in 2012, but his announcement that he would step down as of May 3 came as a surprise. Heller had already announced that he would run to replace Ensign and will now be able to mount his Senate run as an incumbent.
 
Nevada’s constitution mandates that a special election to fill an open congressional seat be held within 180 days of it being vacated. If Heller takes office on May 3, the special election would have to be held by early November.
 
As for how candidates for the special election would be chosen, however, the state’s law is vague, though it specifically forbids holding a primary. A number of interpretations seem possible—ranging from nominees being selected by state party leaders to a wide-open ballot with a range of candidates allowed to compete. The decision on how to interpret the law will fall to Nevada’s Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller, who succeeded Heller in the post after his 2006 election. 
 
Since Heller announced that he would run for Senate in March, a number of Republicans have expressed interest in representing his Republican-leaning district. Interested parties include Nevada Republican Party Chairman Mark Amodei, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, Reno-area State Sen. Greg Brower, and 2010 U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle.
 
The Republican establishment in the state has long had a rocky relationship with Angle. Her primary win last year over the favored establishment candidate, former state party Chair Sue Lowden, pitted her against many members of the Republican old guard.
 
Ford O’Connell, co-creator of the conservative initiative TurnNevadaRed, thinks Angle is already being marginalized by the state’s Republican establishment. “I think what is slightly ironic is that Angle had raised $710,000 this year, and early last week she retired her debt [from the 2010 Senate campaign],” says O’Connell. “I don’t think she would have put that toward the debt had she known that Ensign would retire. Folks in the party may have kept that from her.”
 
O’Connell sees Nevada’s Democrats wanting to “stoke the Angle fires” as much as possible in order to pit the state’s Tea Party activists against its Republican establishment, and suggested that Secretary of State Miller might interpret the vague election laws in a way that did so. If Miller’s interpretation produces a “cattle call” election, where nominees are not chosen directly by the state’s parties, O’Connell says, then Angle has a good chance to win due to her high name recognition and loyal following. If she did win, it would seriously diminish the influence of the state’s Republican establishment.
 
After Ensign’s resignation announcement, when it became likely that Heller’s seat would soon be in play, rumors circulated that Angle would run as an independent if she could not secure the Republican nomination. Angle herself squashed those rumors on Wednesday.
 Noah Rothman is the online editor at C&E. E-mail him at nrothman@campaignsandelections.com