unwelcome in the Senator's Washington D.C. office
sometime before. That was when DeBraga wanted to discuss
terms of the Senator's Negotiated Settlement legislation
to take irrigation out of the Lahontan Valley.
Reid is full of such contradictions: the poor
boy getting rich from his power, the rural kid deeply
involved with devious developers, the old friend shaking
hands, and holding a political knife behind his back.
"That's really why they hate him,"
said one observer. "It's not for what he is, but for
how devious he is about it, for how little he can be
trusted."
Reid has no apparent reason to care. In 1992,
he won re-election without carrying any blocks of
rural Nevada votes, including his hometown of
Searchlight. He won't need them in 1998, either. All
he'll need is the support, not to mention the money, he
has carefully cultivated in Las Vegas and, to a lesser
extent, Reno. Then the poor boy from Searchlight can
secure absolute dominance over the next six years in the
nation's fastest growing state.
Reid will tell his campaign audiences how much
he regrets that such growth is bringing an end to the
"rural character" of Nevada, but probably no
one individual is more responsible for it than is Reid
himself.
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Acknowledged
or not, the lynch pin of Reid's ultimate power in the
state, if not in the Senate, is linked to the failure of
his former nemesis, Senator Paul Laxalt (R-NV) to bring
closure to the key agreement between Nevada and
California, as well as other western states, over the
water they theoretically share. Laxalt thought his most
powerful friends, including President Ronald Reagan,
could help him accomplish the history-making deal, but he
fell short on appropriations, particularly after protests
by tribal and environmental influences.
Water: The Path to Power
When
Laxalt retired from the U.S. Senate, Reid moved into his
seat in 1987, knowing that the real power in Nevada
politics would only be found in settling the century-long
"war" over western state water.
The most important players were already on
board, and Reid had recognized them from his experience
in state government. His success depended on knowing how
to play them to his best advantage.
Pyramid Lake Tribal Attorney Robert Pelcyger
[see accompanying story] acknowledged later to law
students that he had almost made a separate deal for the
tribe, when Laxalt had still been
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