as Harry Reid Maps Comeback, Casinos A Factor
While his leadership is under assault in Washington and the GOP has made him its No. 1 target in Novembers election, Reid is counting on decades of close ties with the gambling industry and the nearly one in every three jobs it supports in the state to win over disapproving voters.
On Friday, hell be joined in Las Vegas by President Barack Obama at the largest privately financed construction project in U.S. history, the $8.5 billion CityCenter casino-resort co-owned by gambling giant MGM Mirage. Eleven thousand people work in the complex, which might not be there if Reid hadnt gotten on the horn with bankers to finance it.
The event will send a simple message when one in five Nevada workers is either unemployed or underemployed: jobs, jobs, jobs, a Democratic mantra since Republican Sen. Scott Browns upset victory in Massachusetts last month.
CityCenter “makes it more difficult for Republicans to make the argument that you are better off with us than with Harry Reid,” says David Damore, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, political scientist.
But with voters deeply unhappy with Congress, and in a state leading the nation in bankruptcies and foreclosures, “I dont think he can be inoculated,” Damore added. “There is this populist impulse out there” threatening Reid and other incumbents nationwide.
Even with the opening of CityCenter, leisure and hospitality jobs in Nevada continued to evaporate in December. Many of the thousands of voters bitter about the states economy are newer residents who know little about Reid, 70, or his decades-long political career. And his high-profile position pushing Obamas agenda has also hurt him with independent voters.
A survey commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in December found a lackluster 38 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of Reid, the same result as in an October survey.
The timing of Obamas visit isnt ideal. Earlier this month, the president issued a written clarification after suggesting in a speech that people saving money for college shouldnt spend it in Las Vegas. It was the second time since taking office that Obama singled out Las Vegas as a potential example of reckless spending. Even Reid said the president “needs to lay off Las Vegas.”
Few states are as reliant on, or influenced by, one industry as Nevada.
Gambling accounts for 15 percent of the jobs in the state, according to state data, but these days casinos are often just part of lavish resorts that include restaurants, shopping malls, nightclubs, hotel rooms and entertainment stages.
One of the senators early campaign ads featured an endorsement from MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren, whose company owns most of the hotel-casinos on the Vegas Strip.
Looking squarely into the camera, Murren credits Reid with using his clout to save CityCenter when its financing nearly collapsed during the depths of the recession.
In a campaign in which Reid plans to raise a Nevada-record $25 million, casinos and the powerful unions whose members fill many of their jobs have been among his top supporters.
MGM Mirage and its employees were the senators top donors from 2005 through 2010, giving him more than $150,000, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that monitors campaign finance.
Funding from Harrahs Entertainment, another major player on the Strip, and its employees ranked third, at nearly $82,000. Neither MGM Mirages political arm nor Harrahs has donated to any of Reids leading Republican rivals.
Republicans in the gambling industry who support Reid include Tom Breitling, a senior vice president at Wynn Resorts, and Lorenzo Fertitta, co-founder of Station Casinos.
Reid “has done a nice job of locking down the gaming industry,” said Ryan Erwin, senior adviser to Republican candidate John Chachas, a Wall Street banker who moved back to Nevada.