All three U.S. Senate debates will be in Las Vegas

Scott Sonner

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2000 | 4:51 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Campaign aides for both U.S. Senate candidates say they are disappointed the two won't debate in northern Nevada but that all three debates in Las Vegas will be televised across most of the state.

"I have been fighting very hard to have one in Reno, but we can't find anybody to host it," said Peter Ernaut, campaign director for Republican John Ensign.

"Both campaigns wanted to have one there but no one has stepped up," agreed Kelley Benander, spokeswoman for Democrat Ed Bernstein.

Debates are scheduled to be televised from Las Vegas on Tuesday Oct. 10, Sunday Oct. 15 and Friday Oct. 20.

The first debate will be carried live on NBC affiliates, including in Reno, Winnemucca and Elko.

The second - broadcast from KLVX-TV Channel 10 in Las Vegas - will be carried by public television stations, including KNPB-TV Channel 5 in Reno, Ernaut said.

"We have a tradition of the PBS station in Reno hosting one but unfortunately this year they didn't do it," Ernaut said Thursday.

"The answer I got was it was because of a lack of resources," he said.

"I've been involved in statewide races for 12 years and I can't remember when there wasn't one in Reno. It's very disappointing," he said.

A news reporter from KRNV-TV in Reno will serve on the panel of questioners at the first debate, Ernaut said.

KNPB is co-producing the Oct. 15 debate with Channel 10 in Las Vegas, KNPB executive producer Rosemary McCarthy said Thursday.

"We are not doing one in our studio," she said.

McCarthy said she had not heard from either campaign regarding the possibility of hosting a debate in Reno.

McCarthy said there was some talk between the two PBS stations early in the year about hosting a debate in Reno but they settled on the joint production instead. She said she didn't see a problem with a debate not being held in Reno.

"A studio shot is a studio shot. It's where you air it that matters," she said.

Neither officials at the Nevada State Archives in Carson City nor the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno, had any immediate confirmation of the last time Senate debates were held with none scheduled in Reno.

UNR political science professor Richard Siegel said it could prove to be an interesting commentary of the shifting political power in the state toward the faster growing south.

"I don't know, but I would suspect that would be a first, a very interesting first, that they had televised debates and didn't have one in the north," Siegel said.