A long series of damaging revelations about John Ensign have left other senators wary of working too closely with him. Ensign isolated by scandal

Embattled Republican John Ensign is showing no signs of giving up his Senate seat, but the persistent drip of information about his sex scandal has some colleagues and top Republican aides asking quietly whether he can serve effectively.

The Nevada Republican admitted in June that he’d had an affair with an aide. But rather than putting the problem behind him, the admission was just the first in a long series of damaging revelations that have left other senators wary of working too closely with him — a significant problem in a clubby body in which success depends on building relationships with other members.


“Like Vitter, Ensign doesn’t get invited to a lot of press conferences because no one wants their boss in a photo op with them,” said one top GOP aide, referring to Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter, who was identified in 2007 as a client of an alleged prostitution ring.

“He’s been so isolated for so long that I almost forget he’s still here,” said another senior Senate Republican aide.

Several Republican senators declined to speak on the record about Ensign’s standing in the Senate. But privately, they said that until federal investigators finish their work on the Ensign case, it will be hard for them to team up with him on legislation. And that could make it difficult for him to resuscitate his political standing in time for a reelection run in 2012.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) stopped well short of an endorsement when asked about Ensign last week. He said he didn’t “think” Ensign is an outcast among senators. Can Ensign still serve effectively? “Ultimately,” Cornyn said, it’s “Ensign who’s going to have to make that judgment.”

When a reporter put that question to Ensign last week, the senator smiled, said nothing and kept walking.

Ensign’s aides insist he’s still heavily involved in pushing legislation — releasing a list of measures he has offered in the months since the scandal first broke, including ones that have received strong support from Republicans.

Among other things, Ensign’s aides said that during the health care debate, the senator offered the only medical liability amendment, raised a constitutional point of order that received unanimous GOP support against the individual mandate and won approval in the Senate Finance Committee of amendments dealing with Medicare savings and healthy lifestyles. But even though Ensign has long been a leader in the push for medical liability reform, Republicans aides said the scandal surrounding him made it impossible for the party to use him aggressively as a spokesman on TV or in speeches or other venues.

Ensign has said that he followed all ethics laws and expects to be vindicated when separate investigations by the Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department conclude. Those probes appear to be focused on steps Ensign may have taken to keep the affair quiet — including arranging for his parents to pay $96,000 to the family of the aide, Cynthia Hampton, and helping to find new work for her husband, Doug Hampton, who was also an Ensign aide at the time of the affair.

Last week, The New York Times published e-mails from Ensign that suggested he may have misused his congressional office and violated federal ethics laws by helping Doug Hampton land lobbying work and that Ensign’s parents may have given the Hamptons the $96,000 as a gift to avoid Ensign’s having to report the money as a severance payment.

Some Republicans believe Ensign is simply holding on to his seat until his term expires in 2012. But sources in Nevada said that Ensign has told fundraisers and supporters that he’s positioning himself for a 2012 run, and some allies said he seems to have been buoyed by the ability of scandal-tinged Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons to mount a competitive bid for the GOP nomination in this year’s governor’s race.

Former Nevada Gov. Robert List, a Republican, said the “widely held perception” is that Ensign will try to run in 2012 and that Ensign has “been acting like a candidate,” most recently during last month’s Lincoln Day dinner circuit, which is dominated by conservative activists. He’s also been pushing measures that resonate with the right wing of the party, including targeting Obama administration czars.

List said that Ensign’s effectiveness will be judged in part on whether he can maintain a level of influence in the Senate and respect from his colleagues.

Ensign has a nonaggression pact with his home-state colleague, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Reid declined to comment when asked about the Republican’s effectiveness amid scandal.

“That is an issue that is now handled by the Ethics Committee and whatever is going on with the Justice Department,” Reid told POLITICO. “It’s something — I need to let them do it, and I don’t need to offer my opinion.”

Spokesmen for the two leading candidates for the GOP nomination to run against Reid this year refused to say whether they believed Ensign could serve their state effectively.

Robert Uithoven, campaign manager for former state party Chairwoman Sue Lowden, wouldn’t directly address questions about Lowden’s views on Ensign. Uithoven said that Nevada voters are “more concerned about their employment than Sen. Ensign’s employment” and that they wouldn’t “predetermine the outcome of this investigation.”

Aides to Las Vegas businessman Danny Tarkanian said the candidate was sticking by a statement he made in January after Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) — a possible candidate for Ensign’s seat in 2012 — said Ensign was “certainly” having a problem performing his job and has “put a cloud” on the state’s delegation.

In the statement, Tarkanian said he did not “realistically” expect to campaign with Ensign and that the “people of Nevada need to know that Sen. Ensign can represent them effectively.”

Chuck Muth, a former Nevada Republican Party executive director, said that if the GOP candidates don’t put more distance between Ensign and themselves, Democrats will “wrap the John Ensign scandal around the Republican nominee’s neck.”

“He’s hurting the state of Nevada, and it’s dragging down Republicans up and down the ticket,” Muth said.

Jon Ralston, a political analyst in Las Vegas, said Democrats “love having [Ensign] there,” since it bolsters the Reid campaign’s argument about the potential negative effects for Nevadans if they no longer had a majority leader in the Senate.

And Democrats are pulling no punches.

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), who’s mulling over a run for Ensign’s seat in 2012, said Ensign “doesn’t have a place at the table.”

“There are only five members of this Nevada delegation — we have two senators and three congresspeople — and we really need to have all hands on deck in order to represent our state,” Berkley said. “We essentially have one senator, and he’s doing all the heavy lifting.”