Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 9:55 a.m.
RENO -- Kenny Guinn, a Republican candidate for governor, says his campaign strategy does not call for confrontations with his opponent, Aaron Russo.
In town to open his Northern Nevada office, Guinn said there won't be any ruckus at the state Republican convention April 24-25 at the Stardust hotel-casino in Las Vegas, as occurred at the Clark County GOP convention last weekend when security was called to quell an uprising by Russo and his supporters.
Guinn refused to appear at the convention during the upheaval and said that wasn't a "proper environment" for the campaign. Russo accused Guinn of not having any backbone.
Russo said, "A governor needs courage to stand up and talk. He (Guinn) ran out when he lost and never came back (to the convention). He didn't have the guts to speak to his people."
Guinn said his strategy is to run for the office, not against an opponent. But he said he has not ducked controversy in the past while a schoolteacher or superintendent of the Clark County School District.
"I don't mind a political debate," he said.
Guinn was asked, that if elected governor, would he closet himself in his office or in the governor's mansion, when pickets, protesters or angry groups appear.
"It's not my style," to be involved in confrontations, he said. "I have a 34-year record of being a person of integrity and honesty and standing up and being a polite person.
"Listen, I don't mind a good philosophical debate and I certainly don't mind an intellectual discussion," he said. "I've had many of those at our legislative sessions, with business leaders, with community involvement with people. So I don't have a problem with that.
"But I think there is a way to conduct yourself that should show courtesy from both sides of the issue."
But governors often don't have that luxury. In the past they have met unruly crowds and controversy head-on and have not shied away.
Gov. Paul Laxalt, despite a possible threat from anti-Vietnam war demonstrators in May 1970, attended the governor's day observance at the University of Nevada, Reno. While at the student union building, a bomb threat was called in but there was no evacuation. When he left in his car for an appearance at Mackay Stadium, students and professors blocked and rocked the vehicle. Laxalt continued on with the ceremonies.
When there was trouble at the state prison, Laxalt and former Warden Carl Hocker personally met face to face with the inmates in the prison yard to calm the potentially dangerous situation.
An angry group of welfare mothers backed Gov. Mike O'Callaghan up in a room on the second floor of the Legislature during his term. He didn't call for security or run but talked with them until they were quieted.
O'Callaghan didn't shy away from the state Democratic Convention when there was a threat of violence. There had been a fist fight at a preliminary session the night before in Reno between supporters of O'Callaghan and his opponents over the issue of campaign spending. Police had to be called.
High tension was present at the convention the following day but O'Callaghan showed up to give his speech, which was greeted with a mixture of applause and boos.
Russo said Guinn "stormed out of the convention" when his forces lost an initial battle and then used the excuse that he didn't want to reappear for fear of the safety of his family.
"He ran away and lost. He was scared," Russo said. "There was no threat to anyone," at the Clark County convention. "We are not a bunch of barbarians."
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