Las Vegas NowSenator Ensign Under Intense Pressure as Investigation Looms

Senator Ensign Under Intense Pressure as Investigation Looms

LAS VEGAS, Nv -- New problems have surfaced for Nevada Senator John Ensign related to an old issue. The senator is now facing an ethics investigation related to trying to cover up an affair with a former campaign staffer.

California Senator Barbara Boxer said Sunday a preliminary investigation has been started tied to Senator Ensign's admission on June 16, 2009 that he had an affair. The Senate Ethics Committee will be looking to see if Ensign broke any rules pushing to get the husband of his mistress a job.

They'll also try to determine if the husband's new position broke a one-year ban under ethics rules because the husband immediately lobbied Senator Ensign on his client's behalf.

Democrats are waiting to pounce on Senator Ensign's seat, while his own party has started to distance themselves from him.

"I think the pressure on John Ensign is immense and basically the pressure of the silence of his colleagues. The silence is deafening," said Republican strategist Steve Wark.

Wark says the affair with a former campaign staffer and then allegations that the senator helped the woman's husband get a job severely hurts Ensign's ability to effectively represent Nevada. Wark stopped short of saying Senator Ensign should resign. I have always said that John Ensign will know when John Ensign needs to step down. I don't think anyone needs to stand there and shove him over the side," he said.

Democratic strategist Dan Hart thinks he should step aside because anytime Senator Ensign is mentioned, there will be a reference to the ethics investigation. "That investigation becomes part of his identity. It definitely reduces his effectiveness," he said.

Hart says if Senator Ensign stays in office there will be a greater chance a Democrat will win the 2012 election for his senate seat. "It provides a platform for people who take issue with the way he votes to criticism him," he said.

The first political action committee took a shot starting today with this ad to push Senator Ensign to support health care reform.

The bottom line for UNLV political science professor Ken Fernandez is voters might not see any violations, just a personal mistake. "They might say, ‘This is an affair. It's a private issue. We wish you would not have done it, but we are going to forgive him as we have forgiven a lot of politicians,'" he said.

Some Republican sources say the senator will resign, but after mid-2010 after it's too late to get candidates for a general election. That way Governor Jim Gibbons can appoint a replacement that will serve the rest of the senator's term to 2012.

In a one-sentence statement, Senator Ensign says he, "remains focused on working hard for his Nevada constituents."