LAS VEGAS: The Kennedys. The Bushes. The Clintons.
And now, the Carters?
As if it didn't already seem like the '70s had returned --
a war raging abroad, the Rolling Stones scaling the pop charts,
and a crisis at the gas pumps -- a Carter is preparing a run
for national office.
John William ''Jack" Carter, 58, the eldest son of President
Jimmy Carter, is plotting a campaign against US Senator John
Ensign, a Republican first-termer running for reelection next
year.
The presidential son, who moved to Las Vegas in 2003 and campaigned
for John F. Kerry last year, said he's about to embark on a
''listening tour" of Nevada to find out ''if my fellow citizens
feel the same way about me as I feel about them."
Carter, an equities investor who lives with his wife in fast-growing
northwest Las Vegas, said he's been contemplating a bid against
Ensign for a while. The Bush administration's ''bungled" response
to Hurricane Katrina caused him to take a more serious look
at running.
''I've been building up to this because I don't like the way
this country has been run," Carter said. ''Then, when Katrina
hit and Bush said it's going to cost $200 billion to rebuild
New Orleans but don't worry, we're not going to raise taxes
nor are we going to cut back on the pork in federal budget,
the thing that came to my mind was 'responsibility.' These guys
don't have it."
Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said the senator doesn't know much
about Carter and couldn't comment on a possible opponent. Ensign
told a local journalist that he didn't know that President Carter
had any sons. His three adult sons largely stayed out of the
spotlight during his term, leaving their pigtailed little sister,
Amy, as Jimmy and Rosalyn's most famous child.
Still, the possible bid by a candidate with a famous last
name has generated enthusiasm among Nevada Democrats -- as well
as some relief in a party struggling to find a viable prospect
to take on Ensign. Next year is the first time in more than
a century that all six statewide constitutional offices will
be open, drawing Democrats into those races instead of challenging
a well-heeled incumbent for the US Senate seat.
''The problem for that particular race has been that we have
momentum for the races for the state's constitutional offices,
so some people have wanted to focus more energy on those races,"
said Kirsten Searer, spokeswoman for the Nevada Democratic Party.
''But when Jack Carter started floating his name, people got
excited. I think once people see more about Jack Carter, they'll
see he's more than a celebrity."
Still, Carter said he's happy to capitalize on his connections
to his father, who would campaign for him in Nevada if he runs.
Observers say it's what makes him a serious candidate, giving
him a potentially national fund-raising base to do battle against
a well-financed incumbent.
''He's got a political name and is from a political family,"
said Dan Hart, a Democratic strategist in Las Vegas. Yet the
Carter name also comes with baggage. Jimmy Carter lost the Silver
State handily in 1976 and 1980, and Nevada has veered even more
Republican since. Jack Carter, who sits on one of the boards
of his father's Carter Center, a humanitarian think tank, defended
the 39th president in an interview, saying that he did an ''excellent
job."
''Of course that will be a factor," Erin Neff, a political
writer and columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said
of Carter's lineage. ''When you think of Jimmy Carter to this
day, you still think of long gas lines and the guy who was in
office before the great Reagan revolution. The Jimmy Carter
legacy is really lost here."
Neff said it remains to be seen how helpful the state's senior
senator and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid would be to a
candidate seeking to unseat Ensign, with whom he has such a
strong working relationship and friendship that a local pundit
regularly mocks the pair as ''Harry Ensign."
Yet Reid has said he'd support any Democrat against Ensign,
and Carter said he's received encouragement from Reid's staff
in two recent meetings. He has also met with US Representative
Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, who offered her full support.
Berkley doubts that the Carter legacy will have much of an
impact on the race, noting that the former president is highly
regarded for his Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian efforts
since losing the presidency to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Jack Carter insists that he hasn't made up his mind about
running and declined to catalog his stances on a list of issues
until he formally announces within the next few months. Still,
he has already drawn media attention. Last week the Reno Gazette-Journal
reported that Carter confirmed that he was discharged from the
Navy in 1970 after one tour of duty in Vietnam because he admitted
using marijuana and LSD.
The undeclared candidate sounds a lot like a committed one.
''I didn't just jump into this because I felt compelled that
it was up to me to do it," he said. ''If I didn't think I had
a decent chance of winning, I wouldn't do it. And having name
recognition is part of that."
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