Former president: ‘Help our son’ by electing GOP

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

Former President George Bush urged fellow Republicans to send Jon Porter to Congress to keep the GOP in control of the House of Representatives and "help our son."

In a seven-minute speech during a morning $100-per-person event at the MGM Grand Conference Center, Bush told a crowd of about 350 Republican faithful that while his heart may be with son Jeb Bush's re-election campaign for Florida governor, Nevada's three congressional seats are on his other son's mind.

After offering Porter his endorsement, he added: "I'll go even further, from the whole family."

"We'd love to have three seats for our son," Bush said, mentioning that if a person doesn't live in Porter's district, they should vote for Lynette Boggs McDonald or Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "We need them desperately back there to get some sense in Congress."

After his brief remarks in the room where the $100-per-ticket patrons were munching on chips and candy bars to raise $35,000 for Porter, Bush also took part in a closed luncheon at the conference center.

That luncheon, which cost an average of $5,000-per-person raised $75,000 for the state GOP's Victory 2002 efforts -- the program overseeing the campaigns of Porter, Boggs McDonald, Gov. Kenny Guinn, attorney general candidate Brian Sandoval and the effort to keep the state Senate in GOP hands.

Bush took no questions from media during his trip, and may not have even seen the 30 anti-war protesters picketing at the entrance to the MGM Grand.

Many of those attending the events drove straight to the conference center, avoiding the Strip and missing the protest.

During his remarks Bush made no mention of Iraq or his nemesis Saddam Hussein, whom he recently called evil. He did make vague references to terrorism, mentioning "the enormous problems" facing his son.

He took the stage to about 30 seconds of sustained applause as people in the crowd snapped pictures, waved and saluted the 41st president. He drew the biggest smiles when he asked the crowd not to ask him where his wife, Barbara, was.

"It's hard enough when your son is president of the United States," Bush said. "But to have your wife be Barbara and walk around like Prince Phillip," he said putting his hands behind his back and shuffling away demurely from the microphone as the crowd laughed.

Bush also told a short story of Election Day 1998 during which both of his sons won governor's races.

"We were flying back home and I said to Bar, this is the happiest day of my life," Bush recalled. "She said, 'What about the day we were married?' "

Bush said the closeness of his family makes him appreciate Porter, who brought wife, Laurie, son Chris, daughter Nicole and mother, Bette, to the event.

He closed urging the crowd to remember the importance of the upcoming elections, and the three qualities he used to describe Porter in the opening of his remarks: "Honor and integrity and character," he said. "They all matter."