LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's one irony of many in the life of former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid: when it came time to choose the author of his biography, Reid turned to a longtime Nevada journalist whom he'd repeatedly tried to get fired over the years.
Jon Ralston, founder and CEO of the Nevada Independent nonprofit news website, recalled that when Reid finally acceded to years of pitches. Reid told his longtime sometimes-foe in the media, "We're both survivors."
"And of course, I wanted to say, 'yeah, no thanks to you, I survived, senator,'" Ralston said on Tuesday. "But he said, 'I know I'm not going to like everything you write, but you're the right guy to do the book. Let's get going."
And he did, delving into an archive of 12 million digital files, 1,100 boxes of papers and interviewing dozens of people, including former President Barack Obama and Reid himself, before the senator died in December 2021.
The product is "The Game Changer," a 400-page Simon & Schuster book that was released on Tuesday.
"There was just this duality about the guy, this guy who came across as totally milquetoast and soft-spoken, but behind the scenes was as strategic and ruthless and even vicious at times as anybody that I covered," Ralston said.
Reid was blunt and, at times, caused himself problems, once referring to President George W. Bush as a "liar" and a "loser." (Reid later apologized for the "loser" remark.) During the 2012 presidential campaign, Reid accused Republican nominee Mitt Romney without evidence of having failed to pay income taxes, later boasting to a reporter that the allegation helped prevent Romney from winning the election.
"Rarely does a guy [in politics] not have a self-editing mechanism. Whatever came into his head, he basically said," Ralston said. "And then, whatever the consequences, where he hoped his great staff — and he had a great staff, as you know — would clean up after him. And a guy who was just so driven, so ruthless in pursuit of whatever he thought was best for the country, best for the [Democratic] party, best for himself, best for his family, best for his friends, he was just going to go and get it."
If Reid were still alive and in public life, he'd be making use of those same skills to oppose President Donald Trump, Ralston said.
"I think, whatever he thought of it — and he would have been appalled — he would have said, and he would have said in stronger terms and probably some indelicate terms, as he had done throughout his career, much more so than anyone in Washington right now."
But there was only one Harry Reid — raised in the tiny town of Searchlight in unbelievable poverty, hitchhiking to high school in Henderson, meeting his future mentor former Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, and eventually earning a law degree and embarking on a life in politics.
Reid's duality — a bare-knuckled brawler (sometimes literally) and a kindhearted leader to a staff that was immensely devoted to him — was one of the things that stood out to Ralston as he researched the book.
"There was a humanity to this guy in the end, on certain things, even if he treated people inhumanely at times," Ralston said.
And Reid, who never really cared about what his political opponents or reporters said about him, did finally come to care about his legacy, Ralston said, telling his longtime office manager to include everything in his papers donated to the University of Reno.
One of the final achievements of Reid's career — replacing right-wing former Sen. Pat McCarran as the namesake of Las Vegas's airport — was one that he really appreciated, Ralston said.
