Nuke waste politics key in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race

Scott Sonner

Saturday, March 25, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - The man John Ensign wants to replace in the Senate is among the Democrats taking issue with Ensign's argument that the state needs a Republican in Congress to help fend off proposals to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

In fact, retiring Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., says Republican leadership has made passing the issue a top priority - something GOP candidates on the campaign trail will have to explain to Nevadans opposed to the nuclear waste dump.

Ensign, a former congressman, is vying for the seat being left vacant when Bryan retires this year.

Republicans nationally view Ensign as one of their best chances of picking up an open Senate seat primarily because two years ago he came within 428 votes of unseating Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The threat of nuclear waste being shipped to Nevada was a pivotal issue in that election. This time Ensign has refined his argument, saying a Republican is needed to help change GOP Senate votes while Reid keeps anti-dump Democrats in line.

But Sens. Bryan and Reid and a host of other Democrats dispute Ensign's theory.

Bryan, a former governor who is stepping down after two Senate terms, and Reid say there's no changing Republican minds as long as Senate GOP leaders make the nuclear waste bill a priority.

"This is not just individuals reaching their own conclusion. The Republican leadership has made this an agenda issue," Bryan said.

"The Republican leadership made it a major issue and brought it up this year as one of the first agenda items," he said.

Bryan said GOP leaders "whipped this issue" - meaning various assistant majority leaders known as whips inform fellow party members they are expected to vote the party line. Defections are duly noted.

"They are not just saying this is an open vote," Bryan explained. "They said this is a leadership issue and it won't change so long as it remains at the federal level a Republican leadership issue."

Reid, the assistant minority leader in the Senate who serves as chief Democratic whip, insisted in the last election that a vote for Ensign was a vote for bringing nuclear waste to Nevada.

Reid argued that the Democrats who continually opposed the Yucca Mountain bill were the only ones keeping the shipments from arriving.

Ensign spent most of the last campaign arguing that all Nevadans are united against the nuclear shipments - that it was not an issue in a Nevada election.

This time he acknowledges Reid and Bryan have done a commendable job "getting most of the Democrats to vote with them.

"Harry is going to be able to hold only the Democrats," Ensign said when he kicked off his campaign.

"We need somebody in the Senate to go to work with the Republicans because right now we only have two Republicans who work with us and vote with us," he said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., says Ensign is right.

"He'd have a voice in the leadership halls on the majority side in the Senate with (Senate Majority Leader Trent) Lott, and we don't have that now," Gibbons said.

"Our senators do a great job given the fact they are in the minority. But I know having been on the majority side in the House, it is very important in terms of the leadership decisions made on legislation and how it is passed," he said.

Both Ensign and his likely opponent, Democrat Ed Bernstein, put nuclear waste at the forefront of their campaigns.

"If I'm elected, I will fight everyday, every minute to keep deadly nuclear waste out of our state," Ensign said.

He praised several Democrats for helping to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada, including Reid and former Gov. Bob Miller. Bryan was "truly the pioneer in this fight," he said.

"Many in Congress and, sadly to say, in my own Republican Party, seem blind to the facts and bent on passing the nuclear waste bill," Ensign said. "If that fight again pits me against my own party, then so be it."

Bernstein was not to be outdone in a speech announcing his candidacy.

"They'll have to run me over a train before I let nuclear waste come in to our backyard," Bernstein promised.

Rory Reid, Nevada State Democratic Chairman and son of Sen. Reid, said approval of the nuclear waste bill in the House this week shows Republicans are entrenched.

But unlike past votes, the margin of approval fell short of the two-thirds necessary to override a promised presidential veto. Most of the shifting votes came from Democrats, with only Gibbons and 17 other Republicans opposed.

"Republican votes on this issue have not budged - with or without John Ensign in Congress," Rory Reid said.

"Republican leaders are bound and determined to dump nuclear waste in Nevada and these votes are becoming more and more partisan," he said.

Sen. Reid said he won't discuss Ensign's stand specifically.

"John Ensign and I campaigned against each other for more than a year. The campaign is over. I am not going to involve John Ensign in any of my rhetoric," the senator.

"But I will discuss Republican leadership in Congress," Reid said.

In the House, 235 Democrats and 18 Republicans voted "the right way" - against the bill, Sen. Reid said.

In the Senate, there were 33 Democrats and two Republicans on Nevada's side, he said.

"This is the Republican leadership who is bought and paid for by the nuclear power industry," Reid said. "This is not something that comes from anything other than Republican leadership and their twisting of arms. And it is not going to change until you change Republican leadership."