Ensign accepts, returns check from Yucca contractor

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

John Ensign, who says the fight against the proposed nuclear dump is "a cornerstone issue" of his campaign for the U.S. Senate, last month accepted $2,000 from a Yucca Mountain Project contractor before returning the money two weeks later.

The Ralston Report biweekly political newsletter, a sister publication of the Sun, reported today that, on March 31, Ensign got the donation from Science Applications International Corporation, a longtime contractor for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A $2,000 reimbursement check from the Ensign campaign was sent to SAIC on April 14 -- a day before a federal campaign finance report was due -- along with a letter from Ensign's campaign manager Mike Slanker, stating: "We cannot accept it due to SAIC's affiliation with the Yucca Mountain Project."

Jon Ralston, a longtime local political analyst and author of the newsletter, wrote in his report that the check was returned, "shortly after I inquired about the donation."

Pete Ernaut, Ensign's campaign chairman, called Ralston's assertion that Ensign would not otherwise have returned the check "ridiculous."

"As contentious an issue as nuclear waste is there is no way in God's green earth that we would have kept a check from a contractor in the nuclear waste industry," Ernaut said. Opposition to the nuclear waste dump "is a cornerstone issue of the campaign."

Ernaut said Ensign recognized the company's name on the check shortly after he received it and asked his staff to look into it. The check, like all donations to the campaign, was deposited in the bank. It took several days for Ensign's staff to get into contact with SAIC, Ernaut said.

He noted it is common for checks that are deemed unacceptable to be returned the day before campaign finance reports are due because that is when a final examination of the records is done.

The Ralston Report says: "A couple months ago (SAIC) company representatives attended a bid conference in Las Vegas on the Department of Energy's $3.1 billion contract for an Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management."

Ensign, a Republican and former member of the House of Representatives, is seeking the seat from which Sen. Richard Byran, D-Nev., is stepping down. Ensign's key opponent figures to be Democratic Las Vegas attorney Ed Bernstein.

Slanker said today that Ensign is "100 percent against the nuclear waste dump." He said Ensign has received unsolicited contributions from the nuclear waste industry in the past and, as has long been his policy, has returned them.

Slanker said there is a protocol in place to look at every check that comes in and return those that Ensign deems unacceptable. Among them are checks from the nuclear waste industry and from Indian gaming interests, Slanker said.

"The important thing is that he (Ensign) discovered it, and the money was given back," Slanker said.

The incident comes on the heels of a weeklong radio campaign by the Nevada Democratic Party featuring ads on at least four local stations charging that Washington Republicans are pushing for nuclear waste in Nevada.

The ad, which also has aired in Reno, cost the Democrats $10,000.

"We thought it was necessary to show the public just how partisan this issue has become," said Rory Reid, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "If it weren't for the Democrats in Congress and the White House, Nevada would be receiving nuclear waste."

The ad alleges that GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush sides with the nuclear power industry, which has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign. Bush, however, has not yet revealed his position on the bill that would store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.