Issues hiding beneath mudslinging

Martin Kuz

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 12:13 p.m.

Forgive voters if they duck at mention of Nevada's 1st District Congressional race. With fistfuls of mud flying between Republican Don Chairez and Democrat Shelley Berkley, they might think there's nothing more to this campaign than attack ads and partisan sniping.

But the verbal punches and counterpunches aside, both of the major-party candidates vying for the seat being vacated by Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., will offer views on a variety of issues when asked -- even managing to occupy common ground on a couple of them.

Berkley, 47, has more planks in her platform than the boardwalk in front of Treasure Island. She plugs education as her first priority, and if elected would work to obtain additional federal funding for Nevada schools, particularly those in Clark County, now the country's ninth largest school district.

Berkley, a university regent for eight years, said pumping more money into education would stave off a rash of social ills and curb overall spending in the process. She pointed out that it costs Nevada $4,500 a year for a student to attend school, compared to the $32,000 annual tab to incarcerate a prisoner. The stronger a state's education system, the better chance of straightening out problem children before they end up behind bars, she said.

"This isn't about spending money. This is about saving money," Berkley said.

A staunch proponent of the Patient Bill of Rights, a Democratic health-care initiative that perished in Congress this year, Berkley supports a similar front-end approach to medical treatment. A shift to preventive care -- by getting HMOs to ease off financial concerns, physicians could treat patients before their condition turns critical -- also would save the country millions of dollars per year, she said.

"Is it better to prevent patients from seeing a specialist initially than waiting until the patient's needs are so great that the cost of care rises dramatically?" Berkley asked. "Isn't it better to provide a primary-care physician to treat children rather than have the emergency room be the primary-care deliverer?"

The former Nevada assemblywoman advocates providing tax incentives for companies to help employees with child care, a position shared by Chairez. She favors using the federal budget surplus to replenish Social Security coffers, and would consider proposals to raise the retirement age and to allow the federal government to invest a portion of the Social Security trust fund in stocks and bonds.

Berkley said she would fight for Congress to funnel more money into Nevada for veterans care. Too much funding currently is devoted to states with a comparatively small veterans population, while retirement havens such as Nevada and Florida suffer from a shortage of veterans clinics, she said.

In addition to working with the other seven states that rely on the Colorado River Basin to protect the water source, Berkley would seek to keep the nation's nuclear waste out of Nevada, fight federal regulation of gaming and secure additional federal money for state roadways. Berkley said House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt has vowed to appoint her to the Ways and Means Committee, which controls transportation funding.

As much as Berkley has sought to keep issues in the cross-hairs of her campaign, she has weathered questions about her character since the Sept. 1 primary. Dogged by alleged comments she made last year suggesting money buys political favors, Berkley has been hit hard by the Republican National Committee and the Nevada GOP in numerous television ads that speculate about her ethics.

Calling the ads an "unprecedented and brutal attack," Berkley, who has lived in Las Vegas for 35 years, said her public record speaks for itself. It may be of further solace to her to know that issues and rhetoric notwithstanding, Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 40,000 in District 1.

"People recognize this attack for what it is," she said. "They also appreciate the fact that I have not let it take me away from focusing on what is important to this community and this campaign."

Sounding a similar theme, Chairez, 42, frequently has lamented the tenor of the race. But that hasn't stopped him from using Berkley's purported remarks about political favors as an example of ethics gone awry. Like it or not, Chairez said, he believes character is the issue voters care about most in Election '98.

"I don't think they want people in Congress who will be susceptible to cutting deals or providing favors for their friends," Chairez said.

The former District Court judge said he knows how to stand up to political pressure, pointing out that while on the bench he often ignored pleas of friends and former colleagues who wanted him to go easy on their clients. He presided over cases that banned smut peddlers from Las Vegas Boulevard and shackled the city's eminent domain authority.

The target of attack ads sponsored by the Nevada Democratic Party that criticize his handling of the Jeremy Strohmeyer murder trial and other cases, Chairez said Democrats have distorted his judicial record. He noted with pride how, owing to his belief that the punishment should fit the offense, police offers were fond of saying, "Next to doughnuts, Don Chairez is a cop's best friend."

His hard-nosed approach to sentencing also explains why area attorneys placed him near the bottom of their rankings of Nevada judges, Chairez said.

Given his legal background, it's little wonder that, after character, Chairez has made crime and taxes the twin support beams of his platform.

He favors upping the number of prevention programs for juvenile offenders and stiffer penalties for violent criminals. He supports creating military-style boot camps for teenagers younger than 18 who are convicted of violent offenses. A six-month regimen of discipline and hard work would reduce the recidivism rate among juveniles while compelling youngsters to think twice about a life of crime, Chairez said.

The former prosecutor also advocates eliminating probation for first-time violent offenders. He maintains that the prospect of guaranteed prison time would deter potential criminals and, in the long run, save federal and state money by reducing the prison population.

Chairez acknowledged that setting up boot camps would happen only at considerable cost, and that the number of criminals initially would swell under a no-probation policy. But contending that the federal government has plenty of flab that Congress can hack away to free up funding, Chairez said he would push for abolition of the departments of energy and education.

A flat-tax proponent who thinks the wealthy get off too easily every April 15, Chairez proposes simplifying the federal tax code. "I'm an attorney and I can't figure out how to do my own taxes," he said. "If I can't, how can the average citizen?"

Chairez agrees with Berkley that bumping up the retirement age might help alleviate the crunch on Social Security. If elected, he would fight to give individuals the option to invest in a tax-free IRA that they could access in lieu of Social Security upon hitting age 65, or to collect a monthly benefits check that is federally taxed, as occurs now.

As one of only a handful of Hispanics to hold elected office in Nevada's history, Chairez has faced criticism about running on the Republican ticket because of the GOP's stance on affirmative action and immigration.

Chairez contends that affirmative action should be determined by socioeconomic factors instead of race or gender. Since a disproportionate number of minorites and women fall on the low end of the economic scale, the beneficiaries of affirmative action would remain about the same, only the criteria by which they were selected would become more objective, he said.

While Chairez supports efforts to beef up the U.S. border patrol, he condemns the anti-immigration rhetoric of some Republicans who want the country to shut its doors for good. With blue-collar laborers in high demand, particularly in Southern Nevada, he advocates issuing temporary work visas to immigrants seeking U.S. residency.

Chairez, who moved to Las Vegas from Sacramento in 1990, has switched political parties more than once. He also has confronted reports about a complaint filed with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission that accuses him of sex discrimination during his days as a judge. Despite those looming clouds, Chairez remains confident of his chances.

"I don't think the American people are looking for saints," he said. "I think they're looking for people who tell the truth."

Libertarian Jim Burns, Independent American Jess Howe and independent Steven Strehlow round out the field vying for the District 1 seat.

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