Reid to play pit bull role in Gore’s campaign

Benjamin Grove

Sunday, Aug. 13, 2000 | 8:47 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- When the Gore 2000 campaign needed a pit bull for a televised political dogfight with a hard-nosed spokesman for George W. Bush, they called Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Less than two hours later, Reid was sitting in a Las Vegas television studio connected via satellite with former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming and CNN anchor Judy Woodruff. The topic of the day was Bush's choice for vice president.

"Well, I think we need a window to the future, not a window to the past," Reid said on the Aug. 2 broadcast of CNN's "Inside Politics." "And I think that is what Dick Cheney brings to this ticket: the past, the past of deficits."

Simpson shot back, "Window to the past -- the trouble that Democrats will have with Dick Cheney, whatever -- however they come at him, tooth and fang -- and they're sure doing it -- is the fact that Dick Cheney will handle all those things himself."

As the Democrats open their national convention in Los Angeles on Monday, Nevada's senior senator will be a high-profile spokesman for the vice president.

For months Reid has been emerging as an important player for the Al Gore team, an advocate for Gore's policy messages and a scrappy Bush critic. Among other tasks, Reid and other loyal lieutenants respond to Republican mud slingers, allowing Gore to stay clean and above the fray.

"He is such a nice and unassuming man that he's not the sort of person you would associate with an attack dog," UNLV political science professor Ted Jelen said. "He has cultivated an image outside Nevada as a thoughtful statesman, and I think that makes him unusually credible."

Reid's role in the campaign is likely to grow between now and Election Day. Team Gore has officially designated the Nevadan as one of the campaign's "national surrogates." Often that means fielding media requests.

This week in Los Angeles, Reid will do at least six scheduled interviews with national media, including CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

"They're certainly going to him more as a liaison for the press," Reid's national press secretary, Mark Schuermann said.

The media often will pit Reid, a former amateur boxer, against a tough Republican foe. Reid doesn't mind the confrontations.

"On the issues, it's easy to speak out for him," Reid said. "I don't mind talking about what the facts are."

Reid also has been tapped to help lead an effort to deliver Nevada to Gore and will appear on the stump with the candidate during the weeks before the election, Gore officials said.

"We are happy to have Sen. Reid on our team as a warrior for the people and not the powerful," said Dagoberto Vega, a Gore national spokesman, deliberately sounding familiar Gore mantras.

"Sen. Reid has always fought for the issues that affect the lives of working Americans. His fights are the same fights fought by Al Gore and (running mate) Sen. (Joseph) Lieberman and make him a perfect messenger for what this campaign represents."

Reid met then-Rep. Gore in December 1982 when he joined him in the House. Gore was a rising member in Congress and chairman of a science and technology subcommittee that Reid joined. Reid was impressed with Gore's "vision" even then, he said.

Reid was the only senator besides Sen. James Sasser of Tennessee to endorse Gore's failed first bid for the White House in 1988.

"He's my friend," Reid said.

Beyond that "binding friendship," Gore now is clearly a better candidate for the nation on environmental, health and education issues, Reid said.

"That's one of my jobs is to educate people about the differences," Reid said.

Reid said Gore needs to "just be himself" in order to overtake Bush in the polls -- and win Nevada.

"He's an articulate speaker, he's got a good presence and a total grasp of the issues," Reid said.

UNLV's Jelen agreed that in a year when few crisis issues are pending in America, Gore needs to define himself as a person.

"The public knows who he is but not that much about him," Jelen said. "He also needs to define George Bush. Bush essentially at the (Republican) convention blurred the distinctions between the parties, except the Republicans clearly went on record as the anti-adultery party."

Look for a nasty fight, Jelen said.

"I expect the Democrats to come out swinging," he said. "By the time this is over you won't be able to tell Texas from Bangladesh. They're going to make it seem like a Third World country."

Delegate and U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, a close Senate ally of Lieberman, said Gore already boosted his campaign in choosing Lieberman. Lieberman bears a likeness to the maverick tendencies of John McCain, Bryan said.

"He doesn't always toe the party line," Bryan said.

The Democratic convention will give Gore and Lieberman a chance to hammer the differences between their campaign and that of Bush-Cheney, Bryan said. "The opportunity the vice president has is to consolidate the base and reach out to independent and moderate voters who don't now have a standing allegiance to either party."

The convention itself should be starkly different from the "warm and fuzzy" Republican convention when the Republicans stuffed their far-right "Neanderthals back in the cave," Bryan said.

At least 80 Nevada Democrats are headed to Los Angeles for the convention, which concludes Thursday. The ranks include 29 delegates and four alternates.

While Republicans talked about being the party of inclusion, the faces of Democratic delegates prove them wrong, Democrats say.

"C'mon people," Nevada delegate Alma "Rosa" Mendoza said. "How many ethnic minorities did you see in the Republican delegation? Ethnic minorities and women are not going to join an entity that is against their philosophies."

Half -- 15 of Nevada's 29 Democratic delegates -- are women, compared to five of 17 female Republican delegates represented at the GOP convention. The state Democratic delegation also includes three Hispanics, an Asian, an American Indian, two disabled persons and two gays, who were not represented among state Republicans, state Democratic Party executive director Janice Brown said.

Overall, 15 percent of the 5,500 delegates are over 65 years old, 23 percent are union workers and 36 percent are ethnic minorities, according to the Gore campaign.

Rep. Shelley Berkley is attending her third convention as a Nevada delegate, her first as a candidate and House incumbent. She was a delegate in 1988 and in 1972 as a 21-year-old UNLV student.

Democrats can win voters over with their positions on education, protecting Social Security and improving health care, Berkley said.

For Nevadans, "I see very anti-gaming, pro-nuke attitudes in the Republican Party, and you can't just sweep that under the carpet," Berkley said. "It's not going to disappear and that's the reality. Al Gore has demonstrated since he was a congressman that he is sympathetic to the issues of concern to the people of Nevada, and that includes gaming issues and issues that affect nuclear waste and keeping the interim dump out of Nevada."

State party leaders sounded similar pleas for Nevadans to pick Gore when they go to the polls in November.

"We have to work really hard to keep reminding people that we don't want nuclear waste here and don't want a president who is against gaming," Brown said. "Nuclear waste is a big deal. And the transportation of it is a big deal. I don't care where that waste comes from, it's going to go right through this town."

Delegate and state party chairman Rory Reid, Harry Reid's son, said, "If you want someone who has worked closely with the Nevada delegation in Washington and who has the nickname Nevada's Third Senator, vote for Gore."

The convention, like its Republican counterpart held two weeks ago in Philadelphia, will not be rich with drama. It's mostly an opportunity for party leaders to energize their grass-roots foot soldiers and finalize the national party platform. It also gives lobbyists a chance to schmooze politicians and for candidates to see and be seen.

Among the nondelegates from Nevada will be Senate candidate and trial attorney Ed Bernstein, who trails opponent John Ensign in the polls. Bernstein plans no fund-raisers but hopes to network with state and national party leaders and chat up Democratic senators.

Sounding a bit like a Nevada office holder already, Bernstein said, "I want them to know how important nuclear waste is in Nevada."

Republican officials said they will be watching the Democrat's show with raised eyebrows. Gore has yet to offer voters an honest glimpse into his personality, said Nevada Republican Party executive director Ryan Erwin.

"I have no doubt that he will reinvent himself for the convention. He's done it time and time again," Erwin said. "The question is which rabbit will he pull out of the hat? Which costume will he wear?"

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