Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan's victory over an incumbent senator caps a political career that began when he was elected president of the student body in high school. ``We're ecstatic,'' Bryan exulted after he defeated GOP Sen. Chic Hecht. ``This has been a real tough campaign.'' Bryan has been a well-regarded governor and has demonstrated considerable media savvy. Hours after a rocket plant exploded in Henderson earlier this year, he appeared at Las Vegas television stations to explain what had gone wrong. He is something of an independent among Democrats. He supports strong defense spending, opposes the Equal Rights Amendment and favors aid to the contras in Nicaragua, all of which put him outside the Democratic mainstream. He has opposed plans to locate a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, and he took a drubbing from Hecht when Gov. Michael Dukakis said he stood by Congress's decision to locate the dump there. Neither Bryan nor Hecht were shy about spending money: Bryan's victory came after the most expensive race in Nevada history, in which the candidates spent an estimated $6 million. Bryan collected 50 percent of the vote to Hecht's 46 percent. Libertarian James Frye received 1.6 percent and 2 percent of the voters selected ``none of the above.'' Bryan joins Sen. Harry Reid as Nevada's second Democratic senator. His win elevates Lt. Gov. Bob Miller to acting governor to serve out the final two years of Bryan's term. Bryan, 51, was elected governor in 1982 to fulfill a dream he had since serving as president of his sophomore and senior classes at Las Vegas High School and student body president his senior year at the University of Nevada-Reno. Despite an image his detractors said was bland, Bryan successfully fought for diversification of Nevada's tourism-dependent economy and won significant reforms in the state's educational system.
