Does Holder’s resignation mean opportunity for Harry Reid?

Republicans hadn’t even uttered their first cheer at the news of the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday when speculation began that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had a devious scheme afoot.

What if Reid suggested to his friend President Barack Obama that the president appoint Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval to Holder’s job for the final two years of the administration?

The move would eliminate Sandoval from contention for the 2016 U.S. Senate race, when Reid faces voters next. Nominating a Republican would give Obama an easier confirmation than would some of the other names floated for the job.

And it’s not exactly unprecedented: Reid supported former President George W. Bush’s nomination of Sandoval to the federal bench back in 2005, a move widely seen as an attempt to keep Sandoval out of contention for Reid’s 2010 Senate race. (Irony alert: Sandoval left the bench to run against — and handily defeat — Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid, in the governor’s race that year.)

Reid never speaks with the media of his more calculating political moves, but it would be surprising if the Sandoval-for-AG idea hadn’t crossed the senator’s mind. Reid has proved to be a Sandoval booster in recent days, praising the governor for getting a goody basket of incentives for Tesla Motors through the Legislature, thanking him for expanding Medicaid in Nevada under the Affordable Care Act and defending him when a scandal erupted over busing mentally ill people out of state.

Meanwhile, Sandoval, a lock for re-election this fall, insists he loves being governor and intends to serve out his entire second term (until January 2019). But U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., once let slip that the governor said he’d consider returning to the judiciary someday, perhaps to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Speaking of possible attorney general nominees from Nevada, why not throw the name of current Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto into the mix?

She has experience in federal law enforcement, as a prosecutor in Washington, D.C. She knows state and local government inside out, having worked as an assistant county manager for Clark County and chief of staff to former Gov. Bob Miller. During her eight years as attorney general, she has focused on fighting consumer fraud and sex trafficking.

Plus, Cortez Masto is term-limited and will be looking for a job come January — perhaps one that could see her take her priorities to the national level. Something tells me she’d take the president’s phone call.

Background check attack

Over in Nevada Senate District 20, the gun background check issue has come up in the campaign between incumbent Republican Michael Roberson and his Democratic opponent, prosecutor Teresa Lowry.

Lowry supports a background check bill offered in the 2013 Legislature by state Sen. Justin Jones, D-Las Vegas, which would have extended criminal background checks conducted by licensed gun dealers to all gun sales, including those between private parties. Roberson opposed the bill.

Usually, Republicans use background checks to accuse their opponents of being soft on the Second Amendment, although the checks have been upheld as consistent with the Constitution. But Lowry, a gun owner who’s married to a former police officer and pictured in her flier with a semi-automatic pistol strapped to her hip, is turning the issue around.

“Michael Roberson wants to allow criminals to purchase guns anonymously, no questions asked,” Lowry says in a new mail piece. “Michael Roberson is putting politics before the safety of Southern Nevada’s families, women and children. And that’s just dangerous.”

The kicker — “Michael Roberson: So soft on criminals and domestic abusers he would let them purchase guns … no questions asked.”

Harsh? Yes. Accurate? While nobody wants criminals and domestic abusers to easily get guns, Roberson did vote against Jones’ bill, which would have made it more difficult for wrongdoers to purchase weapons legally. And the 10 senators and 19 Assembly members who voted against the bill ought to be asked to defend those votes.

Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.