Chic Hecht, 77, Former Senator and Businessman From Nevada, Is Dead

CARSON CITY, Nev., May 17 (AP) — Chic Hecht, a conservative Republican known as much for his verbal miscues as for his upset victory over a powerful Democratic incumbent in a 1982 United States Senate race, died Monday in Las Vegas. He was 77.

His death, of cancer, was confirmed by Francine Pulliam, a longtime family friend.

Former Senator Paul Laxalt, Republican of Nevada, recalled thinking that Mr. Hecht, a onetime Las Vegas clothing store owner, was "half crazy" when he ran for a State Senate seat in a heavily Democratic district in 1966. Mr. Hecht won that race, and went on to defeat United States Senator Howard Cannon, Democrat of Nevada, by a slim margin of 6,000 votes, after Mr. Cannon was caught up in a Teamsters union scandal.

Mr. Hecht served one term in the Senate, and was defeated in his bid for a second term by Dick Bryan, a Democrat. He served for five years as the United States ambassador to the Bahamas, before returning to private business.

In the Senate, Mr. Hecht became known for his verbal slips, once referring to the proposed nuclear waste repository that the federal government wants to open at Yucca Mountain as a "nuclear suppository."

Mr. Hecht served on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and was chairman of the Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee. He also served on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees intelligence-gathering activities of federal agencies.

Born Mayer Jacob Hecht in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Mr. Hecht was known since childhood as Chic (pronounced chick), a nickname given him by an uncle. After graduation from Washington University in St. Louis in 1949, Mr. Hecht served as an Army counterintelligence agent in Berlin in 1952 and 1953.

Soon afterward, Mr. Hecht moved to Nevada, where he became a prominent and wealthy businessman. He is survived by his wife, Gail, and two daughters, Lori and Leslie.