Columnist Jeff German: Bush no friend of Nevada

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com

PRESIDENT-elect George W. Bush hasn't even taken office, but he already has demonstrated that he's no friend of Nevada.

You may recall that concerns about Bush's anti-gambling stance in his home state of Texas surfaced during the campaign.

At the time, Gov. Kenny Guinn, the former Texas governor's Nevada chairman, and Guinn's top political strategist, Sig Rogich, a friend of Bush's father, assured us that George W. had no plans to unleash those feelings on the Silver State.

Casino industry executives ended up contributing heavily to Bush's campaign, and some donated big bucks to his Jan. 20 inauguration.

With the industry's support, Bush won Nevada's four electoral votes in November, and those four votes later put him over the top at the Electoral College in one of the closet elections in history.

How has Bush repaid that loyalty?

By sticking it to Nevada on its most important issues -- gambling and nuclear waste.

Bush's nomination of former Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham to head the Department of Energy was the first shot.

Abraham, a conservative Republican who lost his re-election bid, has a long record of voting for the nuclear industry's campaign to make Nevada the nation's high-level nuclear waste dumping ground.

Next we learned that a number of nuclear industry leaders backing the plan to store the deadly waste at Yucca Mountain have become part of Bush's advisory team on energy issues.

Included in that inner circle is former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., who authored the infamous 1987 "Screw Nevada" bill that designated Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the only repository site to study.

Then came the kicker -- the nomination of former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft, a right-wing Republican, to head the Department of Justice.

Ashcroft's nomination was pushed by the religious right, which has been mounting a campaign against gambling across the country the past several years. Ashcroft is a true believer who once called gambling a "cancer on the soul of the nation."

Word is Ashcroft, who also lost his re-election bid, is so conservative that he doesn't even dance. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

His ultra-conservative views have drawn opposition from a coalition of labor and liberal groups bent on blocking his confirmation in the Senate. The Judiciary Committee begins hearings this week.

The casino industry officially isn't part of that coalition, but you can be sure local executives are rooting for it to succeed.

"Bush keeps saying -- and others repeat it -- that he's a friend of Nevada," says one casino insider who didn't contribute to Bush's campaign. "But we have yet to see him prove it."

John Wilhelm, president of the international Culinary Union, which represents thousands of Las Vegas casino workers, shares that opinion.

"I think anybody who expects the Bush administration to be kind to Nevada is engaging in wishful thinking," the influential labor leader says. "George W. Bush has been very clear about his opposition to gambling."

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate's assistant Democratic leader, adds: "It looks like Bush isn't giving much thought to Nevada. The hundreds of thousands of dollars that Nevadans have given to him don't appear to be doing much good."

Guinn -- whose chief of staff, Marybel Batjer, used to work for Colin Powell, the president-elect's nominee for secretary of state -- isn't prepared to give up on Bush.

"These Cabinet members can't just go off on their own and do what they want to do," Guinn says. "They serve at the pleasure of the president."

Guinn says the new president has pledged to be good to the state.

"You can make a case for and against a lot of his nominees," Rogich adds. "But I don't find that Bush is going out of his way to hurt Nevada."

Maybe so. But is he Nevada's friend?

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