Internet Gambling Opponent Jon Kyl Mum on Reelection Plans

According to Politco, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is keeping his 2012 reelection plans close to the vest, creating uncertainty in the future hierarchy of his party’s leadership. Kyl is the Senate Minority Whip, the second ranking position in the Republican Party.

Poker players know Kyl as Capitol Hill’s current public enemy number one to online gambling. He was one of the key players, along with then-Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA) and then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), behind the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. The bill, which aimed to stop the flow of funds to offshore internet gambling sites, was attached to the must-pass SAFE Port Act in the middle of the night just before Congress adjourned for the year.

Since 2006, Kyl has continued to fight against online poker. Earlier this year, he blocked the appointment of six of President Barack Obama‘s nominees to the United States Treasury because he was upset that the UIGEA implementation deadline had been pushed back six months. This month, he was the most powerful opponent of Senator Harry Reid’s (D-NV) failed attempts to legalize and regulate online poker.

Rumblings about Kyl’s possible reelection bid began in November, shortly after midterm elections. When asked, Kyl told Roll Call, “One of the lectures I give is, what’s wrong with the political system today. It’s that every election starts the day after the last one. That is what’s screwing up our system, because there’s no time out to do legislation in a bipartisan way or without the press of elections. And, so I said, I’m not going to be a part of that game. I’m not going to start that right now.”

Randy Pullen, Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, does not think Kyl will seek reelection. “Things may change, but I don’t believe he is running based on past conversations that I’ve had with him,” he said.

Wes Gullett, who has eyes on the Phoenix mayoral post in 2011, couldn’t say either way whether Kyl will run, but he has no doubt he would win. “I wouldn’t put much stock in what you do or don’t see right now,” said Gullett. “Kyl is in the driver’s seat. If he does run, which I think he will, it’s an easy race for him.”

One byproduct of Kyl’s silence is the uncertainty of the future of the three Senators who rank immediately below him in the Republican Party: John Cornyn (R-TX), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and John Thune (R-SD). All three are in position to move up should Kyl retire from the Senate. Publicly, none of them have expressed concern with the uncertainty.

“I’m not even thinking about that,” Alexander said to Politico. “I can’t remember that we’ve ever had a better whip than Jon Kyl. Our leadership team functions easily, we work perfectly well together, and one of the reasons we do is that none of us are gunning for each other’s position. I think we happen to be in the right positions right now.”

Kyl, a Nebraska native who grew up in Iowa, got his start in politics 20 years after earning a law degree from the University of Arizona. An attorney by trade, Kyl first ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1986, handily defeating Democrat Philip Davis, 64.5% to 35.5%. He won three reelection bids in similarly easy fashion, serving a total of eight years in the House.

In 1994, Kyl made a run at a Senate seat, once again earning an easy victory. The Republican received 54% of the vote, compared to Democrat Samuel Coppersmith’s 40% and Libertarian candidate Scott Grainger’s 6%. In 2000, he ran without opposition from a major party, and in 2006, defeated former Arizona Democratic Party Chairman Jim Pederson in one of the most expensive campaigns in the state’s history.

According to the National Journal’s 2009 Vote Ratings, Kyl was the 18th most conservative member of the Senate last year. He rated as the number one most conservative Senator in 2008.

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