Rally puts focus on women’s health

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 11:12 a.m.

Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, is in town today for a Nevada Democratic Party rally to promote women's health issues.

In addition to the afternoon rally in the Moyer Student Union at UNLV, Gore is expected to attend a fund-raiser for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is seeking re-election this fall.

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Henry said as many as 200 people were expected to attend the rally, including most of Nevada's leading female Democrats. Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus were expected to participate, with Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, serving as master of ceremonies.

Henry said the rally would focus on issues such as prescription equity, patient protection, children's health and prevention and treatment of deadly ailments such as breast cancer.

"Health care is at the forefront of the issues in the 1998 elections," Henry said. "We believe the women's vote will be significantly important in this election."

Tipper Gore last visited Las Vegas in 1996, when she addressed the United Food and Commercial Workers Women's Network at the Tropicana hotel-casino. She told the Sun then that the 1996 presidential election would hinge on the women's vote.

Jones last month participated with the Gores in a 5-kilometer race for breast cancer research in Washington, D.C.

While Henry said the Democrats have taken the lead on women's health issues, Nevada Republican Party Executive Director Dan Burdish disagreed.

"When the Republican Congress came in they brought in the yearly mammograms for Medicare," Burdish said. "If women's health was such a big issue for Democrats, why didn't they do these things when they were in power?"