Bitter Senate race gets past sound bites

Sunday, Oct. 25, 1998 | 9:22 a.m.

Anyone who owns a television set knows that Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. John Ensign have been going after each other as if they were auditioning for a World Wrestling Federation match.

The two major combatants for Reid's Nevada Senate seat, which is up for grabs Nov. 3, have spent most of the campaign defending their own records while blasting one another.

As a public service, the Sun asked Democrat Reid and Republican Ensign to detail their priorities on many of the most pressing issues facing the nation. Their respective agendas represent much of what they hope to accomplish over the next six years.

As expected, they have sharp ideological differences on bread-and-butter issues such as education, health care and Social Security. And both believe they can do the best job of preventing high-level nuclear waste from being shipped to Nevada.

Through Sept. 30, Reid spent $4 million and Ensign $2.3 million, a combined $6.3 million that has already set a record for congressional races in Nevada.

While both candidates are articulate about their vision for the future, much of that money has been spent on an endless stream of 30-second television campaign spots that have been vague and short on specifics.

What you don't learn from those ads is what Reid would like to do with the Endangered Species Act or what Ensign would like to see happen with defense spending.

Yet knowing where candidates stand on unresolved issues is particularly important in the Reid-Ensign contest because so much is at stake.

The Republicans, who already hold a 55-45 edge in the Senate, are hoping to pick up another five seats to give them a filibuster-proof majority that would stifle debate from Democrats. Reid, viewed as one of the five most vulnerable Democrats running for re-election, has in Ensign a challenger who believes Nevada should have at least one of its senators in the majority party. Nevada's other senator, Richard Bryan, is a Democrat.

Ensign said he would prefer a seat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, duplicating the rare feat of a freshman lawmaker landing on a money committee as he did with House Ways and Means. Failing a Finance Committee appointment, Ensign said he'll settle for seats on the Senate Education and the Energy and Natural Resources committees.

But Reid, arguing that his seniority has produced a massive flow of federal dollars into Nevada, said he'll be able to help the state more because he's in line to become the Senate Democratic whip, the second most powerful member of his party. In that position, Reid said he'll be involved in every major legislative decision, which he said can only help Nevada.