Ensign, Porter make brief speeches to party

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2000 | 9:47 a.m.

PHILADELPHIA -- Nevada's two likely Republican contenders for seats in Congress went head-to-head Monday with their party colleagues at the Republican National Convention who adopted a platform that calls for a nuclear waste dump to be created at Yucca Mountain.

House candidate Jon Porter and Senate seat front-runner John Ensign seized an opportunity to hammer the issue during brief speeches inside the First Union Center, home this week to the convention. Party chiefs gave Ensign three minutes -- Porter got about one -- after Nevada Republican leaders lobbied to get the candidates on the dais. "One last item for everyone across this country who is listening today, especially the nuclear power lobby," Ensign said. "Nevada is not a wasteland. Shipping our nation's nuclear waste to Nevada is bad for my home state and bad for our great nation."

Party leaders gave Porter and Ensign, along with 26 other congressional candidates, a moment at the podium to showcase their campaigns. Their brief speeches highlighting nuclear waste, made during an afternoon lull in convention action with only scatterings of people on the floor for an audience, drew mostly silence and a few perplexed looks.

"This is a national stage, and this is an important issue to Nevada," Ensign said in an interview. "But it's an issue that no one outside Nevada understands."

Porter also vowed to block the federal government's plan to bury the nation's high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Scientists are studying the mountain to determine whether it is a safe place to bury waste.

Porter, differing from Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, said he isn't willing to let "science decide" the fate of Yucca.

"People are afraid," Porter said in an interview. "People don't trust Washington. They don't trust Washington's science."

Ensign and Porter join Republican candidates from around the nation who are trying to use the convention to jump-start public interest in their campaigns.

Ensign said his top three issues are: keeping nuclear waste out of Nevada, improving and protecting Medicare and Social Security and improving education.

Ensign's goals include reducing Social Security taxes, and he supports a Social Security "lock-box" that protects the funds from other government spending.

Ensign leads his Democratic opponent, attorney Ed Bernstein, in polls. Bernstein has criticized Ensign for bowing to pharmaceutical companies and for seizing the issue of making prescription drugs more affordable under Medicare only after he stressed it in his campaign. Bernstein made headlines for a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, with about 10 Nevada seniors to buy cheaper prescription medications.

Ensign, a veterinarian who served in the House before he lost a Senate bid to Harry Reid, said that he had for years been concerned about affordable medication, but Congress faced budget deficits.

"We didn't have the money to find a way to fix the problem," Ensign said. "I've been working on this for a long time."

Ensign said Nevada needs a Republican to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan.

"Right now when any Nevada issue is on the table, there is no Nevadan in the room when the majority party lays down the agenda," Ensign said.

Porter, who trails Rep. Shelley Berkley, his incumbent opponent in the polls, touched on a number of plans during an interview just off the floor.

Among other goals, Porter wants to push an ongoing effort to promote Las Vegas as a technology hub for new businesses, attracted by low tax rates and new facilities.

"The companies already know us -- many of them have visited Las Vegas," Porter said. "And we have the infrastructure being put in today as we speak."

Porter said Berkley was not working the Republicans in Congress on critical Nevada issues, such as a bill that would ban betting on college sports in Nevada casinos, which would hurt the gambling industry.

Porter's campaign manager, Josh Griffin, noted that he and Porter met with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde one day before a hearing on the college gambling ban bill and Hyde said he had "never met" Berkley.

Berkley says she lobbied her House colleagues heavily on the bill, telling them it was bad legislation. She chatted briefly with Hyde before the hearing so Griffin's charge was "patently false," Berkley spokesman Michael O'Donovan said.

Porter said he has amassed an army of 500 volunteers who have knocked on 30,000 doors.

Porter planned to return to Nevada today to resume campaigning; Ensign is one of Nevada's 17 delegates at the convention, which concludes Thursday.

Ensign's schedule includes two fund-raisers -- including a luncheon today for about 25 lobbyists and Republican donors -- aimed at netting $50,000 to $60,000, campaign manager Mike Slanker said. Porter held no fund-raisers here.