District 2 debate reveals candidates’ differences

Bob Shemeligian

Monday, Sept. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Spike Wilson and Jim Gibbons agree on issues ranging from nuclear waste storage to the need for term limits, but they disagree on so-called partial-birth abortions.

During a KLVX Channel 10 debate Sunday, the front-runners in Nevada's 2nd Congressional District maintained a calm on-air presence while staking ground that would separate them on some issues.

Gibbons, who is pro-choice, said late-term, or partial-birth, abortions are gruesome procedures that should be abolished. The U.S. Senate last week failed to override President Clinton's veto of a bill that would have outlawed the rare procedure, which involves partially extracting a fetus and removing its brain.

Wilson, who noted that state law forbids abortion in the final three months of pregnancy unless the mother's life is at stake, said such a decision should be up to "the mother, her doctor and her faith."

The debate also included Natural Law candidate Lois Avery and Independent American Dan Hansen. Libertarian candidate Louis Tomburello did not attend.

Wilson, a Democrat, attacked former Assemblyman Gibbons as a partisan Republican who goes along with GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole's proposed 15 percent tax cut despite a staggering national debt and who was coerced by other legislators to vote twice for a 300 percent pension increase.

Following the debate, broadcast live in Las Vegas and Reno, Gibbons said the pension increase, which Gov. Bob Miller vetoed, would have amounted to only $75 a month for him. He said Wilson, a former state senator from Reno, voted to increase his salary and travel expenses nearly $1,000 a month, "which is much more egregious."

Wilson said he voted in 1986 for legislative pay raises that took effect in 1987. Wilson did not seek re-election after the 1986 legislative session.

"My point is that he was politically coerced," Wilson said. "We should vote on something because of its merits and not because of pressure."

During the debate, Gibbons said his record demonstrates that he cares about people.

"I am committed to reducing the federal bureaucracy, and I can help working families of Nevada by lifting the anvil of government off their shoulders," he said.

But Wilson said the Republican Congress has failed working families because of partisanship. He labeled Gibbons as too partisan.

"I'm committed to putting the best ideas of both parties to work," Wilson said.

For much of the hour-long debate, the candidates focused on domestic issues.

Both oppose the storage of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, but Wilson favors a study as comprehensive as the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb, to determine where and how waste should be stored. Gibbons said such a study program is in place.

The candidates agreed that taxes should be reduced. However, Wilson stipulated that taxes shouldn't go down "before we reduce the deficit." Gibbons said that by reducing federal bureaucracy, both can be accomplished.

On foreign issues, Gibbons, a former Nevada National Guard officer who flew a reconnaissance jet in the Persian Gulf War, has altered his position regarding troop buildup in the Middle East.

At an earlier debate, Gibbons said troop buildup should be used as a response to an invasion, while today's unrest in Iraq is an internal matter.

But on Sunday, Gibbons modified his stance, saying he would support a "multinational approach to protect U.S. interests" in the Middle East.

Wilson chose to ignore Gibbon's modified stance and criticized his earlier statement, saying the nation needs a strong "relentless" presence in the Middle East to serve as a deterrent to Iraq President Saddam Hussein.

Avery, the Natural Law candidate, stressed Medicare reform.

"Medicare is destined to go broke by the year 2001," she said. "We should stop looking at Medicare as a disease system, and we should turn it into a health care system. By stressing preventative care, the system would function much more efficiently."

Hansen, who sported a patriotic red, white and blue necktie and used aggressive language to deride traditional party politics, advocated abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.

The 2nd District encompasses all of Nevada except urban parts of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.

Although there is Republican majority of about 40,000 voters in the district, Wilson's staff members say they hope to attract swing votes from the district's nearly 50,000 nonpartisan voters.