Bush aided by strong rural vote in Nevada

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush won Nevada's four electoral votes because of his support of gun ownership rights, his right-of-center philosophy and the absence of Ross Perot in the field.

He benefited from heavy rural turnout and "reverse coattails," thanks to the strong performance of GOP Sen.-elect John Ensign. Bush also co-opted Democratic issues such as prescription drugs and Social Security and scored with his support of a strong military and parental choice of schools.

That was the consensus of political party leaders, professors and other observers who stayed up late into the night as Tuesday's general election results unfolded.

Bush, the Texas governor who carried Nevada 49-46 percent over Democratic Vice President Al Gore, lost Clark County by about 26,000 votes. But he won the state's other 16 counties, most of which turned out in greater percentages than Clark's 69.5 percent. His victory was the ninth by a Republican in Nevada in the 13 presidential elections dating back to 1952.

"Bush is right of center but not a right-wing nut, so ideologically he's not too far from where Nevada is," said Eric Herzik, political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "There were also reverse coattails because Ensign ran better than Bush."

One reason Bush ran particularly strong in Northern Nevada was his support of the constitutional right to bear arms. That stood in contrast with Gore, who favored the ban on assault rifles pushed by the Clinton administration.

"You've got families up here that have been here four or five generations, and they've grown up on the land and a gun is part of their heritage," said Terry Campbell, president of the conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute in Reno. "For someone to say, 'We're going to take that heritage away from you,' is not going to fly up here."

UNLV political science department chairman Ted Jelen also said that Bush "appealed to the libertarian streak that's so dominant in this political culture."

"His refrain was, 'He (Gore) trusts government and I trust you,' " Jelen said. "He also apparently convinced enough people in Nevada that there wasn't a big difference between him and Gore on nuclear waste."

The 150,000-member Nevada AFL-CIO was expected to lend a big assist to Gore, thanks in part to the experimental use of hand-held computers to track precinct voting patters. Danny Thompson, executive secretary-treasurer of the labor organization, said union members voted for Gore by a margin of 5-to-1 and 8-to-1 depending on the neighborhood.

Analyses of Hispanic votes were not immediately available. But the black vote in Clark County was heavily in Gore's favor, said the Rev. Marion Bennett, pastor of Zion United Methodist Church.

"The turnout was the best I've ever seen on the west side," Bennett said. "We've never been as energized as we were in this election."

But the get-out-the-vote effort among union and black households focused on Clark County and was more than countered by Bush's support up north.

"When you get out of Clark County, Nevada is very conservative," Thompson said.

It also helped Bush that popular GOP Gov. Kenny Guinn went to bat for Republican candidates by walking local precincts the weekend before the election.

"Guinn was one of the first governors to endorse Bush," said Ryan Erwin, executive director of the Nevada Republican Party. "He worked hard for Bush and has open-door access to him."

In other races:

"Anytime you get into a race for the first time statewide it's difficult to win," Guinn said. "This was his second time around, and I think he learned a great deal. I've watched him grow and mature, and I don't think anybody has ever worked harder than John did."

Bernstein not only got a late start but was saddled with high negative ratings because he is a personal injury attorney. After trailing by more than 30 points in polls, Bernstein played up his pro-choice position on abortion and attacked Ensign's pro-life stand, closing the gap to about 10 percent in September. Bernstein had hoped his position would attract female voters.

"Unfortunately for Ed Bernstein you can only go so far on an issue that divides people such as abortion," Erwin said. "I certainly think it helped shore up his base, but in the end I'm sure it also turned off some people."

Ensign's win, following Guinn's victory in 1998, also offered further proof that Nevada Republicans have been doing a better job grooming candidates to win statewide races than have the Democrats.

Both Ensign and Berkley are former gaming executives with deep campaign pockets who beat likable but underfunded state senators in Coffin and Porter in re-election bids. The only difference is that Berkley has the added advantage of representing a heavily Democratic district.

"She used her incumbency very effectively," Jelen said. "She conveyed herself as someone who was working so hard for Nevada she had no time to campaign seriously."

Jelen expects Porter to make another run at Congress in 2002, particularly with Nevada set to get a third House seat that year as a result of the state's growth. Nevada State Democratic Party Chairman Rory Reid said the election showed that Berkley is "about the toughest lady in Southern Nevada."

"They called her every name in the book," Reid said of the Republicans. "The national Republican Party spent hundreds of thousands of dollars against her, and she beat it all back. Her victory had to do with the fact people see how hard she works."

Rory Reid called the Assembly performance a big victory for his party because Republicans had counted on winning more seats.

"A couple years ago Republicans said they would take over the Legislature and that it would be the dawn of a new age but that didn't happen," Reid said. "We did a pretty good job recruiting candidates in legislative races."

Organized labor also came out ahead in most of its legislative races.

"We did very, very well in the Assembly," Thompson said. "We held a lot of seats where there was a lot of money put up against them."

The reason Clark County Democrats had more success at the legislative level is that Nevadans, notorious crossover voters in statewide contests, show party loyalty in races for the state Senate and Assembly. This was borne out by the fact that every legislative candidate who won in the county did so in a district where their party had the majority of active registered voters.

The only Assembly incumbent who lost, Democrat Gene Segerblom in District 22, came from a district with about 5,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.

"With Gov. Guinn in there people are comfortable, and there was no appetite to get rid of the rascals," Campbell said. "The last legislative session was fairly quiet."

Aside from legislative and congressional district reapportionment, Herzik said he did not think the 2001 Legislature would cause much turmoil either.

"It will be a session of restraint," he said. "I don't see any big spending initiatives."