They're running for office again already?

How time flies. It seems like only three months ago we had an election.

But that surely can't be right, because Nevada politicians are hot on the campaign trail already.

Even before the Legislature opened, a handful of people had made known their intentions to seek higher offices - U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, Secretary of State Dean Heller and a half-dozen others.

Then on opening day, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins made what some - including Sen. Dina Titus - described as a campaign speech. Both want to be governor, by the way.

Isn't this all a bit distracting for Joe Voter and Jane Taxpayer, who are just beginning to emerge from the fog of the 2004 campaigns? More to the point, isn't it distracting for the politicians who are supposed to be doing their jobs on the public's behalf instead of doing their jobs in hopes of landing a more powerful office?

Let's not be naive here.

These are politicians in a political town. Except for Gov. Kenny Guinn, as far as we know, they're all running for office all the time - and somebody else is gunning for the job they have now. Look at U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. He doesn't have another election until 2010, and already the Republican National Committee e-mailed a hit piece to a million people.

Frankly, it's probably in the best interests of the public to get these aspirations out in the open. We're going to be judging them on their record, so if they want to impress us with smart ideas, reasonable policies and buzzworthy issues, more power to them.

If they want to play grandstand politics, cut back-room deals and spend more time campaigning than working - well, we'll be keeping an eye on that, too.