Four of 10 Nevadans think Clinton should resign

Tim Dahlberg

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998 | 8:27 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - President Clinton's troubles never became a major issue in Nevada's general election, but four of every 10 Nevadans think he should resign.

Although voters leaving the polls Tuesday said the Clinton-Lewinsky affair had little to do with the way they cast their ballots, 42 percent said in exit polls that the president should resign.

Half of those surveyed said they approved of the job Clinton was doing, but six in 10 said they viewed him unfavorably as a person.

"What Clinton did is really no big deal, but personally I think he is an idiot," said Reno grocery clerk Kenneth Destefanie. "He did nothing illegal, but ethically, he's corrupt."

The survey of voter attitudes was done by Voter News Service, a cooperative of The Associated Press and five national television outlets. It was taken among 1,001 voters in 30 randomly selected precincts statewide, with a margin of sampling error at plus or minus 4 percentage points for all voters.

Only one in 20 people voting in Nevada's U.S. Senate race between Harry Reid and John Ensign cited Clinton's troubles as the major issue in the race.

Seven in 10 said it made no difference in the way they voted, while the remainder were split in voting for a candidate either to support Clinton or as a vote against him.

"I just voted straight Democrat," Linda Gafford of Las Vegas said after she cast her ballot. "Clinton didn't have nothing to do with it."

Though 40 percent felt Clinton should resign, two of every three voters surveyed as they left polls around the state said they didn't think Congress should impeach the president.

"It's nobody's business whether he fooled around or not," said Michael Sharp, a disabled retiree in Sparks. "But then he said he didn't do it, when he really did do it, so I can't trust him anymore."

While voters were split on Clinton, they were also split on the performance of Congress. Voters were divided about equally on whether or not they thought Congress was doing a good job.