It was 29 years ago this fall. November 1996 to be exact. And at the tender young age of 37 I ran for the Nevada State Senate against Democrat now-Congresswoman Dina Titus.
Here’s the story . . . including why I’m especially motivated to take her down this cycle.
What sparked my increased interest in politics were the GOPAC campaign training cassette tapes (ask your mom) that Newt Gingrich had been putting out leading up to and after the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress.
I was far from the only one. At a recent fundraising breakfast with Rep. Jim Jordan in Las Vegas, he told me the GOPAC tapes strongly influenced him, as well.
As the journey began, I was elected Chairman of the Clark County Republican Party in January 1995. Eight months later, I was hired as Executive Director of the Nevada Republican Party.
Shortly thereafter, I learned that Newt – along with his senior political strategist, Joe Gaylord – were conducting a weeklong Campaign Management College in Washington, DC.
The GOPAC tapes were great, but I knew they weren’t enough. I didn’t really have the full breadth of knowledge needed to be a truly effective political activist.
So I asked our Republican National Committeeman at the time, Tom Weisner, if he’d pay the expense for me to attend. He did.
By the end of the week with Newt and Joe and other instructors, I not only knew more about how to run winning campaigns, but that bringing similar training to Nevada was what I really wanted to do.
And I’ve been doing it ever since – but focusing most of my attention to the marketing of candidates and campaigns rather than the field operation mechanics.
Into the Lion’s Den
I’d also been to several other campaign training workshops in which the instructors had no real campaign experience – either as a candidate or a campaign manager. They were just reading out of a manual – you know, like most poli-sci professors.
That’s when Nevada Republican State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio asked me to throw my hat in the ring against Titus.
I knew it was “mission impossible.” I think it was around a 3-1 Democrat majority district at the time. But I also knew having first-hand experience as a candidate would be invaluable as a campaign trainer.
So I did it – because you can read about running all you want, but until you actually put your name on the ballot and reputation on the line, you just can’t appreciate the pressure.
It’s not unlike being an entrepreneur – which I was before going into politics. I had a small video production company, and the last gig I had was Wayne Newton’s wedding.
Talk about pressure. Man, I sure as heck didn’t want to screw THAT up!
But back to the campaign trail . . .
Yes, I lost. Got crushed, 61% to 39%.
But it’s absolutely true that you learn more from your losses than your wins – including what a bear it is walking door-to-door when its 110-degrees outside during a Las Vegas summer!
And then there was fundraising. Asking for money to shoot a wedding was one thing. Asking for money to run a campaign was totally different. And like most candidates, I hated it.
But you just gotta suck it up and ask.
And I learned another valuable lesson: When you challenge a vengeful incumbent, people are afraid to contribute. And Titus had a well-deserved reputation as a vengeful incumbent.
The Money Chase
At the time, the reporting threshold for contributions was $500. So only three people donated more than $500 out of fear of having their names show up on my campaign finance report.
One was then-State Sen. Sue Lowden.
She gave me exactly $501 – just so Titus would KNOW she did it and did it on purpose. Sue has always been fearless – and I’m so happy that she’s being honored at the Keystone Corp’s 30th anniversary dinner (featuring Fox News’ Jesse Waters!) next month.
The second was a strip club owner – which is one of the reasons why I had no problem with managing the legislative campaign of a legal brothel owner, Dennis Hof, some twenty years later.
And the third was long-time lobbyist and former Republican National Committeeman Joe Brown. And indeed, he paid a price for it.
Joe told me that during the subsequent legislative session, he went into Titus’ office on behalf of a client – and was told to get the hell out because he’d donated to my campaign.
Yes, she’s as mean and vengeful as everyone thinks.
Then There Were the Debates
We had two them – one on television and one on her home turf at UNLV, where Titus was busy indoctrinating students on left-wing ideology as a political science professor long before it became cool.
And to be honest, I was scared to death.
I was just a high school graduate from a blue-collar family going up against a sitting elected official who taught politics at the university level for a living. But again, you just have to suck it up.
The UNLV debate was held in the outdoor campus courtyard in Titus’ own backyard. And I think I p*ssed her off by giving as good as I got.
My only regret was that at the last minute I didn’t take the risk of doing something I had planned – a violation of Joe Gaylord’s maxim that the only risk you can’t afford to take in a challenger campaign is to take no risks at all.
Now, you young ‘uns are gonna have to ask your mom about this one, too. But 1996 was before Al Gore invented the Internet. And the high-tech communications tool back then was the fax machine.
In fact, it was before the “plain paper” fax became widely used. Until then, fax paper was fed into the machine on rolls of paper – like kitchen paper towels.
So I took one of those rolls of fax paper and hand-wrote a list of all the reasons I thought Titus was a lousy representative and rolled the paper back up.
I was loaded for bear for when the inevitable “Why are you running?” question came up. I was going to grab the top of the roll, announce, “Well, I’ve made a list,” and drop the rest of the roll in front of the podium and let it roll down to the audience.
Visual demonstration. Street theater. Lasting impression. But I chickened out. What a wuss. No guts, no glory. But lesson learned. I ain’t bashful about doing that sort of thing any longer.
The second debate was televised on Channel 10 – the public access network.
And yes, I was terrified again. For all the reasons of the UNLV debate PLUS the pressure of cameras and the possibility of making a gaff that would be preserved on video for the ages.
I was sitting nervously in the “green room” with my wife when, totally unexpectedly, Sue Lowden – a former news anchorwoman – and her husband, Paul, came in.
They brought a make-up kit and proceeded to make sure my pasty-white skin didn’t get washed out by the hot studio lights. It was a kind gesture I’ll never forget and will always be grateful for.
They didn’t have to do that – but they did.
I still have a recording of the debate but haven’t watched it in years because – well, it’s on a VHS tape (again, kids, ask your mom) and nobody has a VHS player any longer!
Revenge of the Attack Ads
Titus’ mailers were brutal but childish. One depicted me in a cartoon drawing with a Pinocchio nose. Whatever.
She also had enough money and felt the need to go up on TV – a luxury I certainly didn’t have. But at least it was money she spent that couldn’t go to other Democrats on the ballot that year.
So I consider that a minor win – as was just going through the experience of being a candidate, which I’ve used in my campaign training programs ever since.
And while many candidates who square off against each other in a tough campaign go on to at least be friendly with each other, that’s not how Dina rolls. She’s as bitter and spiteful today as she was 29 years ago.
And I’ll give you an example to wrap this Part I up…
About a dozen years ago I led an effort to name a mountain peak on the east side of Las Vegas after Ronald Reagan. It was a long, pain-in-the-arse, bureaucratic process. But in the end, the Nevada Board on Geographic Names approved “Mount Reagan.”
The designation was then sent to Washington, DC, for the national board to rubber-stamp.
But Titus decided to introduce a congressional resolution to name the same peak “Mount Maude” or something, which blocked the national board from approving the designation.
And even after Congressman Mark Amodei (R-NV) offered on our behalf to move “Mount Reagan” to a different peak just north of the original and let her have “Mount Maude,” Titus still said no.
The woman is a b- . . . um, witch.
So yes, I am personally highly motivated to see her summarily fired by voters next year – which will be the 30th anniversary of my loss to her.
As Khan Noonien Singh said in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
And I’ll explain why and how I think this political dinosaur can be sent packing next year in Part II of “Toppling Titus.” Don’t touch that dial!
