Bush to visit Las Vegas next week for fund-raiser

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush will make his first trip to Las Vegas next week for a fund-raising lunch at The Venetian for his re-election campaign, White House and campaign officials said Tuesday.

It is Bush's first trip to Nevada as president, although he visited Lake Tahoe in June 2000 as a presidential candidate.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Bush will leave his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Tuesday to attend an event on health-care issues and a Bush-Cheney '04 fund-raiser before heading to Phoenix.

Other details will be made available later this week.

Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, said the governor looks forward to hosting the president. Guinn, state Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., are on the president's re-election team for the state.

Many state officials have attacked Bush's position on Yucca Mountain.

Guinn supports the president despite the administration's strong support for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Guinn vetoed the president's approval of the site last year, but Congress overrode his objection.

"They agree to disagree on it," Bortolin said.

Rebecca Lambe, executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party, said the party is encouraging its members to attend a planned rally outside the Bush fund-raiser Tuesday. She said they have not had to organize anything, but people who are "outraged by the administration" have been planning their own protest outside The Venetian.

"It's sad that his first time to the state as president is to collect campaign cash when he owes Nevada an explanation on Yucca Mountain," Lambe said.

When Vice President Dick Cheney attended a Las Vegas fund-raiser in July, protesters lined the streets rallying against the project, but Cheney still took home an estimated $300,0000 for the campaign.

Bush narrowly won Nevada's four electoral votes in the 2000 election, helping push him to a 271 to 267 electoral college victory over former vice president Al Gore.

McCarran International Airport should not be greatly impacted by President Bush's planned visit.

After landing Air Force One taxis to a remote area at one of the far ends of the airport, airport spokeswoman Debbie Millet said.

Passengers traveling through the airport when the president arrives shouldn't even notice that Air Force One has landed, Millet said.

When President Clinton visited Las Vegas in April 2000 Air Force One rolled to a stop near the Delta Airlines cargo building on the extreme east end of the airport. Secret Service agents lined the roof of the building on the lookout with high-powered binoculars.

After getting out of the plane Clinton got in a limousine on the tarmac and his motorcade headed out of the airport.

The motorcade was led by about 30 Metro Police motorcycle officers in a double line, and included about 20 vehicles that carried the Secret Service, White House staff and media.

It was immediately unclear if and how traffic would be impacted during Bush's visit.