Gore leads lengthy list of pols to come calling

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

A parade of high-profile politicians led by Vice President Al Gore will be marching through Las Vegas this month as the November general election heats up.

Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, is scheduled to officially accept the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Monday afternoon at the union's Unity Conference at Bally's hotel-casino. The 1.5 million-member union voted to give Gore its endorsement last week.

About 1,500 union leaders and political activists are expected to attend the conference.

"We think it's an important sign of the relationship we have been building with Al Gore," Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell said. "We are working with the Gore campaign to further issues important to working people nationally such as Social Security, Medicare and raising the minimum wage."

Gore, a frequent visitor to Las Vegas, won the state's Democratic presidential primary in 1988 and teamed with President Clinton to win the state's four electoral votes during the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.

Beating Gore to town, however, will be Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. The consumer advocate has attacked what he perceives as corporate America's grip on national politics.

Nader is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. Friday at UNLV's Moyer Student Union Ballroom on the second floor. The speech, which is free and open to the public, is expected to touch on Nevada's fight to keep the nation's high-level nuclear waste from being dumped at Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"I'm sure that's going to be a big issue," said Linda Henry, Nader's Southern Nevada campaign coordinator. "He would like to keep the nuclear waste right where it is. He is opposed to bringing it here."

Attending with Nader will be Corbin Harney, elder and spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone tribe and author of "The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth." One of the sponsors of Nader's appearance will be the campus chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democratic Senate candidate in New York, will attend a private fund-raiser Sept. 27 at the Henderson home of Sun Vice President Daniel Greenspun and wife, Robin.

At least $75,000 is expected to be raised for New York Senate 2000 to benefit Clinton's campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the New York state Democratic party. She is not scheduled to make any public appearances in Southern Nevada during that visit.

Roll Call, a publication in Washington, D.C., reported Monday that Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman was planning to make a campaign appearance for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

Berkley campaign manager Peggy Egan said a Lieberman visit is "possible but nothing has been confirmed or scheduled." The publication stated that Lieberman, a Connecticut senator who is Jewish, was planning to visit "12 fiercely contested districts with sizeable Jewish populations" on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.