Paul Laxalt died on August 6, 2018, four days after turning ninety-four. He was both a governor and a U.S. senator. He did a lot to shape modern Nevada, and had a bigger impact on America and the world than many realize. He was known as Tall Paul. Physically, he wasn’t a giant. But he’s a towering figure in our history.
Paul Dominique Laxalt was born in 1922 in Carson City. Shame on you if you have never read Sweet Promised Land by Paul’s brother Robert. That beautiful book begins, “My father was a sheepherder, and his home was the hills.” Dominique Laxalt and his wife Therese were Basque. Dominique was one of many immigrants who came to the U.S. from the Pyrenees to work as sheepherders. They had six children, four boys and two girls. While Dominique was in the mountains, Therese ran the family as well as a boarding house where the state’s politicians often gathered. Young Paul spent a lot of time listening to them.
From a Basque Sheepherder's Son to Nevada Politician
Paul Laxalt took an unusual route to law and politics for a Nevadan. He graduated from high school and went to Santa Clara University. After serving in World War II, he graduated from law school at the University of Denver. When Laxalt was going to law school, Pat McCarran was putting numerous Nevadans through law school in Washington, D.C., by employing them in his office. One of them was John Laxalt, Paul’s brother. Others included Alan Bible and Grant Sawyer. Paul Laxalt would encounter them in the future.
In 1946, he married Jackalyn Ross, the daughter of John Ross, a prominent lawyer and Republican party leader. In 1950, a year after graduating from law school, Laxalt won his first elective office: Ormsby County district attorney. He later said he didn’t enjoy being a prosecutor. The year he left that office, 1954, his father-in-law became Nevada’s second federal judge.
In 1962, Paul Laxalt sought his first statewide office: lieutenant governor. He was the first candidate to do much television advertising, and it helped him. He also learned, if he didn’t know already, how tangled the web of Nevada politics is.
That year, the Republican candidate for governor was Rex Bell, the outgoing lieutenant governor, a former cowboy movie star, husband of It Girl Clara Bow, and proprietor of the Walking Box Ranch in Searchlight. Bell died and Nevada Republicans asked Laxalt to move up. He declined. First, he wasn’t sure he was ready for that. Second, he would have faced Grant Sawyer, an incumbent Democrat with strong party support.
Early Career: District Attorney to Lieutenant Governor
Laxalt’s opponent in the lieutenant governor’s race would be Berkeley Bunker, who hadn’t sought statewide office in 16 years. And the last time he had, the Democratic party had divided over him because he had run for office against a onetime political ally. He hadn’t been completely forgiven.
The story gets better. In 1964, Democratic Senator Howard Cannon would be running for a second term. His administrative assistant, Jack Conlon, was known as Shady Harry. The shady part will be clear shortly. Conlon feared—incorrectly—that Sawyer might challenge Cannon. He figured, if Sawyer had a Republican lieutenant governor, he wouldn’t give up the governor’s mansion. So, behind the scenes, Conlon did what he could to help elect Laxalt.
He succeeded. Laxalt won in a year where Democrats easily won every other statewide race—every one of them. Laxalt had just started an incredible political career.
After being elected lieutenant governor in 1962, he feuded with Governor Grant Sawyer. That shouldn’t have been surprising—two young, photogenic, smart politicians with completely opposing ideologies. Laxalt also decided to run for the Senate in 1964 against Democratic incumbent Howard Cannon. Laxalt seemed unlikely to win. Nevada was a Democratic state. In Nevada and nationally, Democratic President Lyndon Johnson was going to bury his Republican opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona—who Laxalt publicly supported. In the last few weeks before the election, a couple of major Nevada newspapers not only backed Cannon, but basically banished Laxalt from its pages.
But Laxalt again used television brilliantly. He was a great campaigner. Cannon was accused of involvement in a scandal. And when the dust cleared on election night, Laxalt had lost by 48 votes statewide. He demanded a recount and this time lost by 84. The Senate would have to wait.
Laxalt soon turned around and ran for governor against Sawyer, who was seeking a third term. That was a problem for Sawyer. So were divisions in the Democratic Party. So was the job of being governor: as I have reason to know, you gain some supporters, but you also make a lot of people mad because a big part of your job is saying no. Sawyer also took on FBI director J. Edgar Hoover over what he saw as federal violations of the Bill of Rights; today, more people would agree with that stance, but back then Hoover had a sterling reputation. Laxalt won by about 6,000 votes out of more than 137,000 cast.
Governor of Nevada: Conservative Activist
Nobody would doubt Laxalt was conservative, but we also have to define our terms. State and federal governments and issues aren’t the same. Laxalt wanted to reduce taxes and spending where he could, and did. But he also was an activist governor who helped expand—yes, expand—government in the state.
He supported creation of community colleges and a medical school, and thus expanded the higher education system.
He also saw the need to protect Lake Tahoe. Not only is it beautiful, but Laxalt spent a great deal of time there and loved it. Sawyer and his California counterpart, Pat Brown, had worked together on this issue and others. Laxalt worked with his Brown’s successor, a fellow named Ronald Reagan.
Laxalt also wanted to change how casinos were licensed. When he took office, everyone who owned part of a casino operation had to be licensed, no matter how small the percentage. There was no way for a corporation with its thousands of stockholders to be involved in Nevada. Laxalt pushed to change the law and succeeded. He believed it would clear out organized crime. Well, it didn’t, but it helped.
So did the arrival of Howard Hughes. Laxalt did what he could to make it easier for Hughes to get licensed and make his mark in Nevada. By buying so many hotel-casinos, Hughes gave Nevada a new aura of respectability.
As with corporate gaming, that would be important to the state’s future growth and development.
After one term, Laxalt decided not to seek reelection as governor. He felt burned out and wanted to do something to make some money. His political career was far from over.
When Paul Laxalt left the governor’s office as 1971 began, he wasn’t done with politics. After operating the Ormsby House, he decided to run for the Senate in 1974. Nevada’s senior senator, Alan Bible, was retiring. Laxalt won the general election that fall against the lieutenant governor, Democrat Harry Reid, by 624 votes. That was the year of Richard Nixon’s resignation, and it was the only Senate seat the Republican party gained. In turn, Bible retired early to let Laxalt be appointed and gain a few weeks of seniority.
U.S. Senator and "The First Friend" of Ronald Reagan
Laxalt made a name in the Senate, but not for major legislation. He was a leader in the Republican fight against the treaty giving control of the Panama Canal to Panama. He almost immediately became national chairman for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. In 1976, Reagan lost to Gerald Ford, but when Ford lost, Reagan began looking toward 1980.
That year, in addition to handily winning reelection, Laxalt ran Reagan’s presidential campaign. His advice was great: speak from the heart and debate President Jimmy Carter.
Reagan’s election made Laxalt known as “the first friend.” He was asked about running for Senate majority leader and said Reagan already was going to call him first anyway. The leader, Howard Baker, gave Laxalt a special position in the Senate Republican leadership. Later, Laxalt suggested Baker as White House chief of staff after the Iran-Contra scandal.
Legacy: What Paul Laxalt Left Behind
As a senator, Laxalt had influence as Reagan’s closest friend and ally. That meant a lot of behind the scenes negotiating. He played an international role, helping push dictator Ferdinand Marcos to give up power in the Philippines. And he undoubtedly eased some political fights just by being himself: one of his Senate buddies was Ted Kennedy and, rest assured, they didn’t agree on the issues.
Laxalt also gave Nevada a new role in the nation’s capital. He brought Nevadans back east into key positions—Nevada Supreme Court Justice Cameron Batjer, Laxalt’s successor as Ormsby County district attorney, to chair the U.S. Parole Commission; Clark County Commissioner Bob Broadbent as head of the Bureau of Reclamation; and attorney Frank Fahrenkopf to run the national Republican party. Given Nevada’s reputation at the time for mob ties, Laxalt did a lot to make us look more respectable.
Laxalt decided not to seek reelection in 1986. He tried to save the seat for Republicans, but instead the winner was Reid—and after their earlier race, they became and remained good friends. Laxalt made a brief run for president in 1987 but realized he had entered too late and called it the worst four months of his life.
He had some other unpleasant moments. He wound up suing the McClatchy newspaper chain over a story claiming organized crime ties and skimming took place at the Ormsby House when his family owned it. They settled the suit, and McClatchy had to pay legal fees. Other outlets planned similar stories and decided not to run them. For his part, as Laxalt said, Nevada was different. He once said that turning down a contribution from Moe Dalitz of the Desert Inn would be like a Michigan politician turning down General Motors.
Laxalt understood the old Nevada and helped shape the new. As Reagan’s close ally, he was a founding father of the modern conservative Republican movement. Tall Paul stood tall, indeed.
