Reid’s fund-raiser gains $500,000 for Democrats

Benjamin Grove

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada Sen. Harry Reid helped raise about $500,000 this weekend for three key Democratic allies on the nuclear waste issue, plus three other Democratic congressional candidates, including Senate candidate Ed Bernstein.

The fund-raiser benefited three senators up for re-election: Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Reid spokesman David Cherry said.

The money raised also will be split among three other candidates: Bernstein, Florida state insurance commissioner and former Rep. Bill Nelson, who is running for the Senate, and Rep. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, also making a Senate bid.

During an election year it is common for party leaders such as Reid to help fellow party members raise money for their campaigns. Congress is out of session this week.

Conrad, Baucus and Bingaman voted with Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., this year against a bill that would speed shipments of nuclear waste to Nevada for permanent burial at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Bingaman, who is ranking member on the Senate Energy Committee, is a key Reid ally on the issue.

The fund-raiser weekend included a $5,000-a-plate dinner Friday night at the Mirage, attended by about 40 Washington lobbyists and roughly 60 Nevada business leaders.

Reid's Searchlight Leadership Fund, his political action committee, provided tickets for guests to see Siegfried & Roy.

Some fund-raiser attendees golfed on Saturday while Reid and Bernstein attended the Washoe County Democratic Convention in Reno and later in the day the Clark County Democratic Convention at the New Frontier in Las Vegas.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., also attended the Democratic Party events.

Dorgan, chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, arrived in Las Vegas Friday afternoon to push for a major plank in the party platform: a patients' bill of rights. Dorgan and Reid attended a hearing on the issue Friday on the UNLV campus.