Nevada Sen. John Ensign's star rising as GOP searches for its voice

After a relatively quiet first term, Sen. John Ensign has become a vocal and ubiquitous spokesman for the National Republican Party.

It's practically impossible to get through a week without seeing him on several of the political talk shows and, while he dismisses talk of a presidential run in three years, he is being billed as one of the party's rising stars.

"It's really strange how that did happen," Ensign said. "I get asked to go on the Sunday shows every week now."

For Ensign, his new role was a necessity.

"As you know, we don't have the White House any more. We don't have the bully pulpit," he said. "The President is an incredible spokesman, an articulate, dynamic speaker. He has the bully pulpit and he's covered every half hour of the day, seven days a week. We need a lot of voices to even get a little bit of our message out there."

He grew into that roll in two years as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Three of Nevada's most experienced political strategists say the Republican Party is trying to find its voice now. They said Ensign is trying to fill that role and, in doing so, bring the party back to the Contract With America.

The Contract With America was the plan issued by the GOP in 1994 which laid out in detail the changes Republican candidates including Ensign promised to make if they were made the majority in Congress. Those promises included irequiring a supermajority to pass tax increases, cut taxes on businesses, reform social security and the welfare system. Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay and Richard Armey were among its authors.

Now in his second term in the Senate and chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, Ensign is aggressively pushing to restore the party to what he sees as its core conservative values.

"The thing people forget is Ensign went in as a true believer," said Billy Vassiliadis, CEO of R&R Partners. "I think there's a battle over what the Republican Party is and will be and he's a stakeholder."

"The reason behind his increasing profile and activity is there's a great void in the Republican Party for an experienced, articulate spokesman," said Pete Ernaut of R&R. "He's just stepped up to fill that void. I think the presidential talk is just that."

Vassiliadis, a Democrat, and Ernaut, a Republican, agree that, whatever his ultimate goal, Ensign's visibility and growing power in the party and the U.S. Senate is all good for Nevada.

R&R Partners is an advertising and public relations company which is one of Nevada's leading political consulting, campaign management and lobbying firms. During the 2008 political season, Vassiliadis was one of Barack Obama's top Nevada advisers. Ernaut, a former Assemblyman, managed Gov. Kenny Guinn's gubernatorial campaign. As president of R&R's Government and Public Affairs Division, he is one of the leading lobbyists at the Nevada Legislature.

They were joined by Greg Ferraro, head of The Ferraro Group, a veteran lobbyist and political advisor, who said Ensign "has found his voice" at a time when the party really has no voice.

All three are also lobbyists for the gaming industry.

"National media continues to invite him to speak to core Republican ideas," said Ferraro. "He's helping to reshape key, core issues for Republicans. It says a lot that he's articulating and defining the Republican message."

Ensign said that, while the talk of a presidential run is flattering, his focus is the issues.

"What I'm trying to do is bring us back to more solid core principles. The idea that we don't want to run up a huge debt burden on our children and grandchildren. Government should be more effective but limited. We do need a strong national defense but an effective national defense. We have to limit wasteful spending in Washington."

Ernaut said the leaders of the Contract with America movement are now all gone from Congress.

"Figuratively, he's the last man standing from the class of 1994," he said. "I think what propelled John is he found in the last year or two that there really hasn't been a difference in the spending habits of the Republican and Democratic parties. It's really important for the Republican Party to stand for fiscal conservatism. We've lost that and that single issue has probably propelled him onto the national stage."

"He's telegenic, willing to be contrary to the President. He's saying quotable things," said Vassiliadis. "There are not a lot of other Republicans right now who are those things."

In many ways, Ensign's rise mirrors that of the last Nevada Republican to reach the national stage. Then-Senator Paul Laxalt opened an exploratory campaign for president in the final year of Ronald Reagan's second term. Ferraro said like Laxalt, Ensign is an articulate conservative who is very good on television.

"It's a long way off to be speculating about presidential elections but the timing is right for John Ensign to emerge and stand taller," said Ferraro.

Laxalt, now semi-retired in Washington D.C., declined to be interviewed for this piece saying it's too far until the next election.

Ensign said the comparison and talk of him as a potential candidate is "very flattering."

He described Laxalt as "one of the greatest leaders we ever had in the Senate, somebody I've modeled my career after."

As for the potential presidential run: "You never say never but that's certainly not my focus."