With Heller headed to Senate, Berkley needs to stay in House

Dear Shelley,

I’ve known you and liked you for many, many years. You haven’t asked for my advice, but here it is.

Find a graceful way to quit the Senate race, and run for re-election to the House. Please.

The political landscape changed Wednesday when Gov. Brian Sandoval surprised absolutely no one and told Dean Heller he was moving on up from the House to the Senate.

We can thank John Ensign for that. His belated decision to resign two years after he should have resigned changed the 2012 Senate race for you.

Heller is going to have an advantage, and, while nobody is unbeatable and you’re an unparalleled campaigner, I doubt you can beat him now. His fundraising ability improves just because he’s an incumbent senator. Soon he’ll have a statewide persona. Before, he was that Northern guy few knew in Las Vegas.

If you continue, you’re going to put yourself through a lot of unnecessary grief, and you could end up out of politics altogether.

I want you to stay in the House. I want you on Ways and Means looking out for Nevada’s interests. You’re on the health subcommittee. Is there a more important committee than that? And you love being on the foreign affairs subcommittee.

Nevada’s extraordinary position of having two House members on Ways and Means is now down one with Heller’s departure. It could go to zero if you don’t run an eighth time for the House.

A House run would be a cakewalk for you. No grief and likely no serious opponent because the GOP has pretty much ceded the 1st Congressional District to you.

Even with redistricting, you should end up representing many of the same folks your staff takes such good care of with constituent services. They don’t want to lose you. Your staffers have a reputation for taking care of their business with efficiency.

As I said in an earlier column, there are likely to be vicious political ads by the GOP against you, using words you said in 1996 to portray you in a nasty, horrible way.

While I know you’re no quitter, think this through.

Before this happened, I thought you had a decent chance. The Democrats have that statewide advantage in registration. President Barack Obama would be plugging you on campaign stops. The respected Democratic grass-roots, get-out-the-vote effort would be a boost, compared with the Republicans’ nonexistent grass-roots effort. All that would work in your favor.

Plus, few know Heller down here. He could make blunders as he’s done in the past

Remember that time in Carson City when Heller set up a man during a speech by asking if anyone in the room had taken advantage of Cash for Clunkers? When one man said yes, Heller said, "Congratulations. Everybody else in the room paid for your car."

The man left saying, "I have better things to do than be insulted by a man who hasn’t learned anything. I’ll never vote for you again."

Heller apologized for embarrassing the man, but added, "I don’t think everybody has a right to own a new car."

Heller chose a heavy-handed way to make his point.

Heller can step on his you-know-what at times.

Anyway, back to my point. I don’t want to see you out of politics. Look at this like the lawyer you are.

Sometimes, it’s better to be honest about your chances. You didn’t enter the Senate race to be anybody’s sacrificial lamb. After careful evaluation, you thought you could win. Maybe you were right at that point. But not now.

You have a job you love, you’ve said so many times. Keep it.

Please reconsider.

All good wishes,

Jane Ann

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.