Former Nevada governor, senator Paul Laxalt has died

Siobhan McAndrew | Reno Gazette-Journal

Nevada politician U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, often described as the “First Friend” because of his close relationship with Republican President Ronald Reagan, has died.

He was 96.

Laxalt was a renowned figure in Nevada politics serving one term as governor, two terms in the U.S. Senate and as general chairman of the Republican National Committee. He died at a health care facility in northern Virginia on Monday, Aug. 6.

His wife, Carol, who he married in 1975, was by his side according to reports.

Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who is running for governor and in June won the GOP nomination, praised his grandfather, calling him the embodiment of the American dream.

“My grandfather was the rare man in the arena that never lost sight of who he was or where he came from," Adam Laxalt said. "To those closest to me, my grandfather was both a light and a compass: a testament to what a man should be.."

Others also praised Laxalt following the news of his death.

“Paul Laxalt was the definition of what a leader should be: Kind, thoughtful and eager to extend a hand in friendship, regardless of political affiliation. His legacy is secured as one of the finest leaders Nevada has ever known," said former U.S. Senator Harry Reid.

“With a public-service career spanning four decades, Paul epitomized the very best Nevada had to offer by putting service above self," said U.S. Sen. Dean Heller in a statement. "He served as a friend and confidante to numerous Nevadans as his wealth of knowledge steered many of us to seek his valued advice and insight."

Son of a Basque immigrant sheepherder

Laxalt was born Aug. 2, 1922 to a pair of Basque immigrants. His mother Therese raised him and his five siblings while his father Dominique often tended to a flock of sheep in the mountains.

He attended school in Carson City before going to Santa Clara University. Laxalt served in the Army during World War II.

After leaving the Army, Laxalt returned to university, graduating from the University of Denver with a law degree in 1949. He returned to Nevada to practice law, working his way to become Carson City district attorney, one of the youngest in the state.

During his time practicing law, the family gained national prominence via his brother Robert’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful book “Sweet Promised Land,” which detailed the Laxalt’s father’s return to the Basque homeland in the Pyrenees after more than 40 years.

Laxalt was married to Jackalyn Ross, the daughter of a prominent federal judge. The couple had six children. After he married his second wife, Carol, he also adopted her daughter from a previous marriage. At the time of his death, Laxalt had numerous grandchildren and great-grand children.

Running for office

Laxalt made his first attempt at a statewide election in 1962 for lieutenant governor, defeating Democratic Congressman Berkeley Bunker.

He tried making the leap to federal office in 1964 when he ran for U.S. Senate against another Nevada political giant in Howard Cannon. Laxalt was a close friend with that year’s presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., which Sig Rogich, former communications director for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who worked on Laxalt’s Nevada campaigns, said might have cost Laxalt the election.

Amid a heated and divisive presidential election between Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and Goldwater, Laxalt attended a Las Vegas rally for the woefully unpopular Goldwater. Laxalt stuck by his friend, possibly leading to his defeat at the hands of Cannon, Rogich said.

“He could’ve easily called it off, but he thought it would hurt Barry Goldwater’s feelings and that it was just not the gentlemanly thing to do,” Rogich said. “That alone probably cost him the election because Goldwater lost in a landslide.”

Goldwater lost Nevada by 28,000 votes that November. Laxalt lost his race by 48 votes.

To the governor’s mansion

Undeterred by the loss in the Senate race, Laxalt ran for governor in 1966 against two-time incumbent Democrat Grant Sawyer eventually winning and overseeing what those close to him called a pivotal transitional time for the state.

Laxalt made headway in his single term in office, starting the community college system, raising taxes on gaming and creating the taxi cab authority, but perhaps his most crucial accomplishment as governor was finalizing the work started by Sawyer and bringing corporate gaming to Nevada.

“This was when Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general, was threatening to shut down gaming,” said Ed Allison, a longtime Laxalt aide and close friend. “One of the first things Laxalt did as governor was go back and meet FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and then went over and saw (President Richard) Nixon. Sort of the conclusion was corporate gaming would remove the incentive to skim, which was one of the big issues.”

The advent of corporate gaming had a lasting effect on the state to this day, helping take Nevada from a den of iniquity to a worldwide tourist destination.

It was also during his time as governor he began a relationship with then-California Gov. Reagan that would continue through the future president’s time in the White House.

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Both Laxalt and Reagan had a fondness for Lake Tahoe – and a desire to protect its natural beauty. The two worked together to form the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a bi-state compact between Nevada and California.

“That’s how he became initially close friends with Gov. Reagan,” Allison said. “They were working together on the compact commission.”

The two formed a bond that would stretch from their time on the West Coast all the way to Washington, D.C. – Reagan the former Hollywood actor and conservative savior, Laxalt the cowboy and close confidant. Laxalt and Reagan, along with their families, would often vacation together at Laxalt’s property on Marlette Lake.

Mr. Laxalt goes to Washington

Despite the success of his first term, Laxalt declined to seek reelection, but the allure of public service didn’t escape him for long as he decided to run for U.S. Senate in 1974, besting a future giant in Nevada politics.

Laxalt defeated then-Lt. Governor Harry Reid, a Democrat, by a slim margin of 624 votes.

“I don’t know any senator since he’s been there who’s had the same kind of rapport and the same kind of reputation that he had, which was everybody liked and respected Paul Laxalt,” said Greg Ferraro, a Republican consultant who started his career in politics working for Laxalt at the Republican National Committee.

Besides his demeanor on Capitol Hill, Laxalt also developed relationships with people through one of the unlikeliest of sources: tennis. An athlete all his life, including winning a state basketball championship at Carson High School, Laxalt had a lifelong love for tennis he carried to Washington, Allison said.

“I’m telling you, without hardly any exception, he could play and get you almost to the end then whip you,” he said. “Then they would sit down and have an iced tea or whatever and you develop a really extra special rapport with the press when you have something like that. Later on he played a lot of tennis with senators. Tennis was a pretty gosh darn big role in that that people don’t recognize.”

The revolution begins

Laxalt and Reagan soon teamed up in 1976 when Reagan ran as an insurgent candidate against Republican President Gerald Ford. Laxalt chaired the campaign.

The 1976 campaign went all the way to the convention but ceded to Ford, who lost to Democratic Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.

What sprouted from that 1976 campaign was the conservative revolution led by an undeterred Reagan, with Laxalt at his right hand all the while, but it wasn’t an easy walk for the former California governor to the highest office in the nation.

The 1980 campaign got off to a rocky start for Reagan including an abysmal debate performance and a loss to Bush in Iowa. Lou Canon, former White House correspondent for the Washington Post, said it was Laxalt who helped in the aftermath.

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“Laxalt told him bluntly, ‘You were sitting on your ass in Iowa and you have to get off it and work,’” Canon said. “And he did in New Hampshire and solidly defeated Bush there.”

Reagan ended up fixing his woes and by convention-time, it appeared Laxalt could become the vice-presidential nominee, Fahrenkopf said.

“It was clear that Reagan, and maybe even Nancy, would have favored Paul to be the running mate,” he said. “But in those days, what you normally didn’t do in choosing a VP was choosing someone of the relative same age, relative same political philosophy and from the same region of the country.”

Politics got in the way of friendship and the position ultimately went to Bush.

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The campaign moved on and the Reagan-Bush ticket cultivated a groundswell of support in the November election, causing a massive shift in dynamics in the Senate. Democrats held a 58-42 majority at the beginning of 1980. By the end of the election that year, Republicans held a 53-47 majority, the first time the party controlled a chamber since 1953.

It was during the post-election bliss that Laxalt truly displayed his Western, gracious nature, Fahrenkopf said. As it became apparent the Republicans were going to take the Senate, Howard Baker of Tennessee called Laxalt to suggest Laxalt become majority leader.

“I sat there for 20 minutes and I tried to talk Paul into accepting the position of majority leader in the Senate,” Fahrenkopf said. “He said, ‘That’s not me. That’s not my personality to go through all that crap.’”

Instead, Laxalt called Baker back and told him he was supporting Baker for the position, Fahrenkopf said. Baker held the office for Reagan’s entire first term.

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The First Friend

Even after declining the offer for Senate Majority Leader, Laxalt remained the president’s confidant on Capitol Hill, eventually earning him the unofficial moniker of “First Friend”, almost to a fault.

“He was the best friend of the president of the United States, and if he had any criticism, it’s that he didn’t utilize that to Nevada’s advantage as much as some people thought he should have,” Allison said. He didn’t lose his bearings on where he was from.”

Reagan held meetings at the White House every other Tuesday to determine the party’s direction with a cadre of the GOP elite, always with Laxalt at his side, Fahrenkopf said.

“I could notice when the president would say something and debate was going on, he would look at Paul,” he said. “They had this ability I think with the nod of a head to communicate without saying words.”

-With staff reports