In John Ensign Scandal, the Quieter Side of Las Vegas Has Tawdry Tendencies, Too

In the days that followed the news, as the media scrum settled into place, Hampton stood silent, waving off reporters who outsmarted the electronic gate at the Desert Trails development.

The Hamptons' attorney, Daniel Albregts, politely took down contacts for the reporters queuing up to ask his clients how, for instance, they came to work for their friend. Doug's $162,000 annual salary was near the Hill limit. Cindy's pay doubled in the middle of the affair. Their son, 19, had a $1,000-a-month internship at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Ensign headed from 2007 to '08. After both Hamptons were dismissed as Ensign aides in April 2008, Doug Hampton found work as vice president for government affairs at Allegiant Air, owned by a major Ensign contributor. The family's five-bedroom, five-bath home with rock waterfall pool, spa and billiard room is for sale. Purchased for $1.2 million in 2006, it's assessed at half that today in a city where an estimated 70 percent of homeowners are underwater.

Last week, Ensign met privately with his fellow Senate Republicans and gave a two-minute speech of apology, which, they said, closed the whole affair in their minds, despite calls from some watchdogs for an ethics committee investigation of the affair.

"I think he's prepared to move on, and I wish him well," said Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.). A majority of Nevadans agree Ensign should stay on the job, according to a poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The survey framed the question oddly, comparing Ensign's "admitted affair" with the airport restroom high jinks of former senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho.). But even with an approval rating at 39 percent, the adulterous junior senator remains the most popular elected official in the Silver State.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, faces reelection next year with just 34 percent. And Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) struggles to reach double digits after winning a campaign marked by a cocktail waitress's accusation that he tried to force himself on her in a parking garage.

"These things don't end quickly," said Robert Uithoven, who managed the Gibbons campaign. In Carson City, Gibbons's poor political performance was reinforced by a spectacularly tendentious divorce from his wife of 22 years, who for a while had the governor's mansion to herself.

"Isn't that ironic?" said Sig Rogich, a longtime Republican consultant. "In the land of quickie divorce, this is the longest one I can remember and it's the governor's."

Ensign hasn't Gibbons's personal baggage, but neither has he visible support from a state party that Muth, the consultant, said the senator has neglected.

"I think it's the hypocrisy charge that makes this a lot more relevant," Muth said. Ensign made personal morality a measuring stick for public service. He was quick to condemn Craig and President Bill Clinton, and joined Promise Keepers, the evangelical phenomenon that in the 1990s filled stadiums with men publicly promising to remain faithful to their marriage vows.

Muth recalled driving Ensign and two other Republicans to a Lake Tahoe event a decade ago. "These guys, that's all they were talking was Bible stuff in the back seat of the car, quoting biblical passages," he said.

In Vegas, the Ensigns attend Meadows Fellowship, a low-key evangelical sanctuary that just added a third service to accommodate the Sunday morning demand. Her brother said Darlene Ensign had a conversion experience in high school. For the senator, it was in college.

"He blamed no one but himself," Pastor Ron Flores wrote in his Pastor's Weekly Musings newsletter, and declined to comment further, pausing on the sidewalk after services. The midday sun was directly overhead, and in the clean desert light, even the curbs looked somehow ideal.

"It's a common understanding that it's two cities," Flores said. "The international city, which is the Strip. And the ordinary city.

"In this part of town, anything other than the Strip is Las Vegas."