Kerry will visit; Bush may follow

Kirsten Searer

Friday, Aug. 6, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry on Tuesday will visit Southern Nevada for the third time this year, and President Bush is expected to follow closely behind.

Democrats announced Thursday that Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, will attend a ticketed rally Tuesday evening at the Thomas & Mack Center. Doors open at 4 p.m.

Kerry is midway through his "Believe in America" tour, a two-week, coast-to-coast tour of battleground states.

The White House also was expected to announce today that Bush is preparing to visit Southern Nevada. Bush made his first trip to Las Vegas as president in November, and he made a Reno stop in June.

Bush spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said this morning that Nevadans should have plenty of questions for Kerry.

"John Kerry should explain to Nevada why he supports tax hikes of small businesses and has flip-flopped on every issue important to the state," Schmitt said. "His backward economic policies are going to be a tough sell to a state that has experienced robust job creation due to this president's leadership."

Democrats, meanwhile, have criticized Bush for not talking to the Nevada media about his decision to proceed with the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The party called Bush's Nevada stop the "me too" visit, saying they wish Bush would follow Kerry on issues as well as campaign stops.

"Wouldn't it be great as President Bush follows John Kerry across the country, if he followed Kerry's leadership on the Yucca Mountain issue?" Democratic spokesman Jon Summers asked in a press release.

While Kerry has carved out a stance of opposing Yucca Mountain, he has caught recent heat from Republicans because he voted in favor of early bills in favor of a Yucca Mountain site.

Kerry will address those votes in his visit next week, said Kerry campaign spokesman Sean Smith.

Former Gov. Bob Miller, who announced the Kerry stop, said Kerry has made a pledge that no other presidential candidate has -- to stop Yucca. Yucca Mountain is the issue that gives Kerry a "distinct advantage" in Nevada, Miller said.

Bush, he said, has had just one opportunity to defend Nevada.

"The President has had but one vote and it is definitely to Screw Nevada," Miller said, taking a jab at the so-called "Screw Nevada" bill that established Yucca Mountain as the prime site of a nuclear waste repository.

Kerry voted in favor of that bill.

Smith said the campaign hopes to draw up to 10,000 people to the Thomas and Mack Center. Other stops in the post-convention tour have drawn huge crowds, he said.

"Crowds have been overwhelming everywhere else on this tour," he said.

Kerry or his vice presidential pick, Sen. John Edwards, could make other visits to the state before November, including to Northern Nevada, Smith said.

Tickets to the Tuesday evening Kerry rally are free and are available starting today from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

They are available at the Victory 2004 Headquarters, 1325 E. Vegas Valley Dr., Suite C, 737-VOTE; the Gallagher for Congress Headquarters, 4300 E. Sunset, Suite E-1, 932-0901; and the Atkinson-Gates Headquarters, 3925 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., Suite 212, 632-3922.

More information is at www.nvdems.com.