LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Local Las Vegas officials remembered former President Jimmy Carter on Thursday, the day he was eulogized in Washington, D.C., by family members and President Joe Biden.
Clark County Commissioner Richard “Tick” Segerblom, a longtime elected official and attorney, worked as a field organizer for Carter’s 1976 campaign for the presidency before he even took the Nevada Bar exam. He did field organizing work in Pennsylvania, worked briefly in the White House and worked for Carter’s unsuccessful 1980 re-election out of a Northern California office headed by a then-unknown party operative named Nancy Pelosi.
“He [Carter] was very unique as far as his coming along when he came along, and it will probably never happen again where someone, an unknown governor from Georgia, shows up and the system was fair enough that he was able to reach out to people and they responded,” Segerblom said.
In today’s environment — with corporate spending, PACs and so-called dark money groups, social media and a 24/7 news cycle — a campaign similar to Carter’s would be impossible, Segerblom said. But in 1976, as the nation was still dealing with the fallout of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon’s resignation and President Gerald Ford’s pardon, Americans were yearning for change.
Asked what Carter would most be remembered for, Segerblom replied: “I think bringing decency back to the White House. He really succeeded Nixon. Ford was there for a couple of years, but he [Carter] really was the anti-Nixon, and he came in and said, I’m going to restore dignity to the White House. The other thing is, he brought the South into political play.”
It took 12 years after Carter was defeated by Reagan in 1980, but another Southern government proved again that Democrats could perform well in the South when Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush for re-election.
Former Nevada U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan — who was serving as attorney general of the state when Carter was president — said Carter was plagued by a bad economy, which likely doomed his candidacy, the same way Bush and, later, Biden faced stiff headwinds. But he said Carter’s reputation changed after he left office.
“As the years passed by, Carter gained stature,” Bryan said. “I mean, he was a selfless, hardworking person who had strong religious beliefs,” Bryan said. “He really took on a different role, and people began to come together and say, you know, this is a good man.”
Bryan cited some of the post-presidency avocations that Carter pursued — helping monitor international elections for fairness, fighting disease in Africa, building homes in the United States with the Habitat for Humanity charity — as ways Carter continued to contribute once his time in the White House was done.
Segerblom said Carter also wasn’t afraid to tackle tough problems.
“He loved controversy,” Segerblom said. “I mean, if there was a problem that people said you can’t solve, then his eyes would light up, and he’d want to get into the middle of it. He’s kind of like [the late former Nevada U.S. Sen.] Harry Reid in that sense. He really tackled problems that no one else would try to tackle because most politicians want to stay as far away as possible from controversy.”
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