Grant Sawyer

Timing in politics is everything, and it’s sometimes interesting to wonder how the careers of key players would have progressed if the voters had gone a different way.

Look at the race of United States Senator in 1970: what if Bill Raggio had been successful in unseating Democrat Howard Cannon?  Raggio could be in his seventh term as a U.S. Senator right now – and given his track record in Carson City over the last four decades, he would likely have emerged as a powerful Washington insider with considerable seniority.

A Raggio victory in ’70 would have meant now opportunity for Chic Hecht to take on Cannon in 1982, or for Richard Bryan to unseat Hecht six years later.  There would have been no open seat for John Ensign to compete for in 2000.  Maybe Ensign would have run for Governor instead when Kenny Guinn left office in 2006? Surely he would not have hung around until 2012, when Raggio would have been up for re-election again.