Gore vows to fight for Nevada’s rights

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1999 | 11:14 a.m.

Vice President Al Gore left Las Vegas today with about $200,000 for his presidential campaign, but not before pledging to protect Nevada's rights in its fight against a nuclear waste dump here.

The Democrat told about 100 party faithful at a Gore 2000 rally at Harrah's hotel-casino Monday that he was familiar with the problem of nuclear waste storage since radioactive weapons were produced in Oak Ridge in his native Tennessee.

"But how do we solve problems in a nation of laws?" Gore said. "We make decisions according to due process with attention to fairness and logic. And we don't run over a state that has a smaller population than the average state and a lot of open space.

"We don't try to bulldoze the rights and feelings of people just because they may not have 25, 30 seats in the House of Representatives."

The vice president said he would oppose any legislation that would "bypass the scientific process" in determining the best site for high-level nuclear waste. He said he opposed the unsuccessful attempts to place a temporary dump at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, because they were not based on scientific research.

Gore also said he would oppose ongoing attempts by some members of Congress to prevent the federal Environmental Protection Agency from having any say over air and water quality standards related to a proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"If you are going to take the EPA out of the process and give it to a group that doesn't have the environment as its principal focus, then you might as well expect a different kind of analysis that tries to push forward without giving careful attention to the facts that need to be looked at," Gore said.

Gore's loyalty to Nevadans who have fought to keep a proposed nuclear waste dump from being located at Yucca Mountain explains in large part why the state's Democratic Party machine is solidly behind him. Former Gov. Bob Miller, referring to Gore as Nevada's "third senator," chided Democratic presidential foe and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley for voting in favor of sending nuclear waste to Nevada.

Also lending support to Gore were Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, Rep. Shelley Berkley, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, and Clark County Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Dario Herrera and Erin Kenny. State legislators on hand included Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus of Las Vegas and Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins of Henderson.

"Because of Al Gore and the president we today do not have nuclear waste in Nevada," Reid said. "If it weren't for them, it would be here right now."

Gore's only mention of Bradley was at a Monday night fund-raiser for about 200 supporters who paid $1,000 each to munch on seafood and other treats at Harrah's Cafe Andreotti. The vice president said he had challenged Bradley to a series of weekly debates to discuss various issues. He viewed the proposed debates as a chance to "lift our democracy," while bemoaning voter registration that he said has declined since 1960.

"A presidential election is an opportunity for us to rekindle that American spirit, to review the American dream and to bring those who have been disaffected and disillusioned and disenchanted back into our democracy," Gore said.

The vice president also failed to mention Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential front-runner who reportedly has raised more than double the $25 million Gore is expected to have amassed by the end of his current West Coast campaign swing. But Gore knocked congressional Republicans for wanting to spend much of the nation's budget surplus on tax cuts, and called the GOP plan a "scheme."

"It's kind of hard to see their logic unless they're principally interested in helping the few at the expense of the working people," Gore said. "We ought to use the surplus to save Social Security and save Medicare and add prescription drug coverage, and then pay down the debt and not burden our children."

Much of Gore's Western swing, which included a Monday morning stop in Phoenix and later trips today and Wednesday to Los Angeles and Seattle, was focused on organized labor and public schools.

The vice president, who already has the endorsement of the 1.4 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers union, is hoping to win support as early as tonight from the 13 million-member AFL-CIO. Reid, the Senate minority whip, said he expects Gore to collect that endorsement and win the Democratic nomination.

"It would be extremely difficult for Al Gore to be beaten," Reid said. "He controls the party organization. The only place where he's fighting for the lead is in New Hampshire."

While in Phoenix, Gore met with union electricians and other construction workers at a building site. When he arrived at the Signature Aviation terminal at McCarran International Airport Monday afternoon, he was greeted by about 15 local union firefighters.

Before departing from Las Vegas today Gore visited the Roberta C. Cartwright Elementary School at 1050 E. Gary Ave., where he emphasized school modernization and class-size reduction. Gore also touched on educational themes Monday night, taking to task a GOP plan to allow parents to use tax-supported vouchers to send their children to private schools.

"We ought to lift up our public schoolteachers," he said. "We ought to have smaller class sizes. We ought to treat teachers like the professionals that they are."

Reid and Bryan both said Gore would be far more inclined than Bush to fight for Nevada's interests not only on nuclear waste but on behalf of the gaming industry. Bryan noted that Bush has stated that "casino gambling is not OK," a quote contained in a 1998 report on illegal gambling in Texas.

"Mr. Vice President, George W. Bush is a bad bet for Nevada and a bad bet for the nation," Bryan said.

Gore, who won his party's presidential caucus in Nevada in 1988, helped President Clinton carry the state and its four electoral votes in 1992 and 1996.