Reid dials up criticism of Heller on Internet poker

WASHINGTON – The sudden flare-up between Nevada’s senators, who are at loggerheads on Internet gaming, intensified and grew more personal Wednesday, threatening chances to legalize online poker.

After they parted ways on strategy, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid in a strongly worded letter suggested Republican counterpart Dean Heller was failing to do his job on what “may be the most important issue facing Nevada since Yucca Mountain.”

“As a result, we are at a standstill” on a matter crucial to the state’s casino-based economy, Reid said.

Reid, the Senate majority leader, charged Heller has failed to produce Republican votes for a gaming bill he is trying to bring before the Senate.

Heller’s spokesman said it was “complete fiction” to assert that Heller has not held up his end as the Nevadans scramble for some way to pass controversial legislation through Congress before the end of the year.

Heller “will continue to work with Senator (Jon) Kyl and the rest of the Republican conference to pass this legislation which is critically important to the state of Nevada,” spokesman Stewart Bybee said.

The split between the Nevada leaders broke into public view Monday, when it became evident that Reid and Republicans had different ideas on how to move forward on an Internet gaming bill. Months of negotiations produced a draft over the summer that has not yet been introduced as finished legislation.

The bill would seek to legalize online poker and establish a framework for it to be regulated on the federal level. It would open a vast market for casino companies that have been positioning themselves to cash in.

At the same time, the bill effectively would declare most other forms of Internet gambling to be illegal, reversing a Justice Department interpretation of the anti-gambling federal Wire Act last December that has encouraged states to explore online lotteries and other forms of Web gaming.

Reid had given Heller a Monday deadline to produce 15 Republican votes that could be banked if Reid found an opening in the Senate schedule this month before lawmakers recess for the November elections.

Heller in response said he believed it had been agreed that the House of Representatives would move first. Reid said that had never been the plan in his view, and the two remain at loggerheads.

Kyl, R-Ariz., who had worked both with Reid and Heller on the issue, said Wednesday he, as does Heller, believed the best path to passage first was through the House, a conclusion he reached after discussions with House GOP leaders.

“I am afraid that if the Senate acts first, the House will feel itself jammed, and it wouldn’t go anywhere,” Kyl said. “The object here should be to pass a bill, not make Senator Heller look bad.”

Kyl said Reid’s sharp letter to Heller has further complicated the bill’s chances because it has injected overt politics into the matter.

“Now the thing has blown up,” Kyl said. “Again, I want to work with Harry Reid to get this done. I regret to say what he has done here is going to make it a lot harder now. Instead of an approach by which we might have been able to bring people along, I think it looks to be what it is, and that is very political.

“It looks like some political hack wrote that letter for Harry,” Kyl said. “I think he wants to get this done, but he must appreciate that letter was going to make it very, very hard.

“I am distressed it has taken the turn that it has,” Kyl said. “I am very concerned about that now.”

Looming in the background has been this year’s Senate race pitting Heller against Democratic challenger Rep. Shelley Berkley. Reid’s criticism served to bring it to the fore.

“I did not want this issue to become political in nature but I cannot stand by while you abdicate your responsibility as a U.S. Senator representing Nevada,” Reid said in the letter that was released by his office. “Nevadans deserve someone who will fight for them.”

Berkley also jumped in, charging Heller “has failed to deliver” on a gaming bill that could create jobs in the state.

Reid, who controls the Senate process, told Heller that waiting for the House to act is a waste of time, and “we cannot afford delay. Yet you advocate delay at the expense of vital Nevada interests.”

Heller and his staff have been trying to persuade Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to initiate legislation that would reverse the Justice Department’s ruling on the Wire Act, thus closing the door on most forms of online gaming and satisfying House conservatives who oppose gambling expansion.

Under that scenario, if the House passed that bill, the Senate would tack on an exemption for poker, thus legalizing an online game that advocates contend is a contest of skill and not so much gambling.

But Smith has no plans for such a bill, according to a Judiciary Committee aide. Smith, and incoming committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., oppose gambling but also understand the motives behind that strategy.

“We are not naive,” a committee aide said. “They were going to try to get us to pass a bill, and then they would add the poker change to it and then send it back to us.”

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Follow him on Twitter @STetreaultDC.