Some guys have a hard time taking no for an answer.

As we’ve learned, Ruben Kihuen is one of those guys.

After lasting a single term in Congress following sexual harassment allegations that led to a damning report by the House Ethics Committee, the Democrats’ former favorite son is returning to the campaign trail with an announced run for the Las Vegas City Council in Ward 3. Pretty audacious, right?

Hey, no one ever accused him of being shy.

Rumors of Kihuen’s interest in a council seat began swirling while he was still cleaning out his Washington office. That’s a time most politicians would be pausing to reflect — or at least planning to enter another line of work. Not our Ruben. If Kihuen’s not careful, people are going to suspect he’s more interested in staying in the political game than representing the people he embarrassed after they sent him to Congress in District 4 in 2016.

If Kihuen’s conscience has been bothering him, he’s done a fine job disguising it. His penance apparently paid in full, he officially filed Wednesday after telegraphing his intentions in a Jan. 15 Tweet posted in English and Spanish: “I’m ready to continue serving the people of Nevada. I will work hard to earn your vote on April 2nd for Las Vegas City Council Ward 3.”

#MeToo, meet #It’sMeAgain.

As expected, the prospect of Kihuen’s entry into the race has drawn an array of critics, including Tommy White’s political ditch diggers at Laborer Local 872. Most noticeably for Kihuen, even Gov. Steve Sisolak has weighed in, recently telling a reporter, “I'm a little surprised. I wish he would take into account the effect that's going to have on some of the victims, reliving this another time.”

Just a guess, but I’d say an endorsement from the governor is a long shot.

Talk about tone deaf. Kihuen’s decision to run comes after Sisolak and Attorney General Aaron Ford have rolled out Nevada’s new sexual harassment task force.

Kihuen’s swift return to the arena makes it harder for him to show the public he’s been changed by his experience. He may be sorry for his boorish behavior, but not so much that he’s willing to hit the pause button on his political ambitions.

Although some people can’t find a good reason for Kihuen to try a comeback so quickly, I can think of approximately 300,000 of them. Give or take a few bucks, that’s the amount of cash Kihuen had in his congressional campaign account. It’s one of the many benefits of the office he squandered, and it may be legal to carry over the balance into the local campaign.

But will he be able to actually spend it on his council race? An article in The Indy Friday by Riley Snyder raises serious questions about whether using the cash would violate state law.

That money, name recognition and his considerable campaigning skill would make him a contender in Ward 3, but that damning ethics report makes him a walking bull’s eye for challenger Olivia Diaz. She’s an outspoken, bilingual assemblywoman and public school teacher with neighborhood roots. Others in the race offer a range of professional experience from serving veterans (Melissa Clary) to overseeing city parks (David Lopez) to public education (Aaron Bautista.)

No one can match Kihuen’s name recognition, which he built at the Legislature and then tarred in Congress.  The House Ethics report found credible the harassment allegations of two women who worked on Kihuen’s 2016 congressional campaign and a third woman who had lobbied him during his 10-year tenure as a state senator. The report concluded his behavior violated the congressional code of conduct, which is really saying something given the House’s own scandalous history.

Although he said he disagreed with some of the elements of the report, he apologized to the women in a 2018 statement and repeated his apology in statements to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KSNV.

Some would argue that in the #MeToo era the stench of sexual harassment can’t be scrubbed off with money alone. It takes time, and something that looks like sincere contrition, and even that might not be enough for many people. Perhaps.

But those who have followed municipal elections know Las Vegas has been a place where ethics offenders have survived and even prospered.

In a campaign that lasts just a few weeks in a jurisdiction with traditionally awful voter turnout, anything is possible. If it’s allowed, with all that money, Kihuen could surprise some people – or at least spend all that money.

He’s chasing the seat being vacated after Bob Coffin chose not to run for re-election. Coffin, who is part Hispanic but doesn’t speak Spanish, has long believed his replacement should be bilingual in order to best serve the ward’s heavily Latino demographic. Coffin calls Kihuen “highly qualified for the job” and reminds skeptics that he was raised in the ward and has been well known and well liked there. He also finds his swift return to the campaign trail a bit bewildering.

“He speaks Spanish, he has government experience, and by that I mean pressure experience,” Coffin says, offering no endorsement, and adding he’s also impressed with Diaz. “But I guess I would have taken a little vacation after all of that. I would have liked to separate myself from politics for a little while, but that’s me.”

Kihuen is already being vilified, but maybe his opponents should chip in and send him thank you notes. (I’d suggest flowers and candy, but he might get the wrong idea – and you know where that can lead.)

Why thank Kihuen?

By entering the Ward 3 race, he’s given voters an excellent reason to pay attention to the city election.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith