Hinting That He's Available

By Richard Stengel

For years Paul Laxalt has played the supporting role of best friend to Ronald Reagan's star turn as leading man. His performance has been a polished one: the crisp, affable, silver-haired Nevada Senator has headed Reagan's presidential campaigns and become an essential backstage adviser to the man he used to go camping with when both were Western Governors. But now the script has the leading man retiring. As Laxalt, 63, surveys the potential replacements, he has begun publicly pondering that most common question of both politicians and second leads: Why not me?

For now, the two-term Senator is still playing coy: "If it appears that we have a viable candidate who can fly the Reagan banner, I'll back him. If not, I'll look at the situation very carefully." In an interview with TIME last week, he admonished, "Now don't go making a candidate out of me." Would "passive availability" be a better way to put it? That, he chuckled, was a "very good description." He conceded that he is edging closer to a candidacy, though he will wait until after the fall elections. "Events of the last few weeks," he said, "have changed my mind."

What events? Laxalt says only that friends around the country have been urging him to make the race. But many politicians have friends who say such things, and Laxalt is too savvy to fall for sycophancy. Although he does not say so publicly, Laxalt seems increasingly persuaded that Vice President George Bush is singularly prone to trip himself up and that neither Congressman Jack Kemp nor any other current contender is emerging with the right stuff. Despite the demurrals, one intimate said of Laxalt's readiness to run, "He's 99% there."

"There is extreme looseness at this point," says Republican Sage John Sears, who managed Reagan's candidacy early in the 1980 race. "It is all a function of people recognizing George Bush's weakness." A Laxalt candidacy could underline that weakness and block any chance Bush has of getting tangible support from Reagan. Moreover, the redoubtable Ed Rollins, campaign director of the Reagan-Bush organization in 1984 and one of the co-chairmen of Bush's political-action committee, would jump if Laxalt declared. "Paul Laxalt is a close friend of mine," says Rollins, "and if he chooses to run for President, I'll be part of his team." Laxalt would also undermine Kemp's quest by siphoning off the support of true believers on the Republican right.

Laxalt, however, would carry a sizable handicap. What the oil industry is to Texas, gambling is to Nevada, and for some voters Laxalt would be tainted by association. After he was Governor of Nevada, Laxalt was the principal owner of the Ormsby House Hotel-Casino in Carson City. Laxalt is currently embroiled in a libel suit against McClatchy Newspapers, which reported that organized crime was involved in skimming nearly $2 million in receipts from the casino. Though the paper did not claim that Laxalt was involved in or knew about the illegal operation, he has vigorously pursued the lawsuit, and other newspapers have given extensive coverage to the story. Efforts to settle the case have stalled. If it is not resolved in his favor, says Laxalt with extreme understatement, "that would be a problem."

At the moment, Laxalt is not exactly a high-profile contender. But what is appealing about Laxalt to the Republican faithful is his closeness to Reagan, both personally and politically. With his Western roots, his no-frills manner and his detached, easygoing style, Laxalt offers enough intimations of a Reagan Redux to give him a chance at the leading role. --By Richard Stengel. Reported by Laurence I. Barrett/Washington

With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett/Washington