Political impact of Yucca remains unclear

Kirsten Searer

Monday, July 12, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.

Forget the donkey: Local Democrats use Yucca Man and Chicken George as party symbols these days.

The two mascots have shown up at numerous Republican events in the past few months. Yucca Man, an old friend to Democrats, dresses in a white haz-mat suit to represent the possible perils of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Chicken George takes a pot shot at President Bush for failing to come to Southern Nevada to talk about Yucca Mountain since he signed a pro-Yucca bill in 2002.

Democrats hope that Bush's decision to go ahead with Yucca Mountain -- combined with Democratic presidential contender John Kerry's resolute promise to halt the project -- will hand them Nevada this presidential election.

And they feel buoyed by a federal court ruling Friday that found the government didn't heed the National Academy of Science in setting a key standard for the planned repository.

But it's unclear what political impact the Yucca Mountain issue will have on this year's tight election.

Any clarity of Yucca Mountain as a political issue has been clouded a bit.

More than a dozen polls, commissioned over the last few years by Republicans, Democrats and pro- and anti-Yucca groups, show Nevadans' split feelings over Yucca Mountain:

There's the rub as the issue garners more attention this election season.

Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has tracked Yucca polling for years. Opinions sometimes fluctuate, particularly in rural areas, during tougher economic times, when people see an opportunity for compensation from the government, he said.

But usually, rooting for Yucca Mountain in Nevada is "like being against apple pie and motherhood."

The question is, will Nevadans use it as a litmus test in the presidential election?

Democrats hope so. They're mindful that had Al Gore won Nevada, he would have won the presidency. And Nevada is one of the so-called "battleground" states, meaning plenty of money and attention are being directed here.

Over the weekend, national Democrats passed a platform that specifically condemned Yucca Mountain, saying, "We will protect Nevada and its communities from the high level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, which has not been proven to be safe by sound science."

The 2000 Democratic platform simply stated the nuclear waste should be stored in a "scientifically sound manner," though it did not mention Yucca Mountain.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who sat on the platform committee this weekend, said the message says "to Nevada and the rest of the nation that Democrats find the Yucca Mountain Project to be unsafe, and that we will fight to protect our families from high-level nuclear waste."

Berkley said she originally proposed a draft version of the plank, but the committee ended up strengthening the language. Nevada, she said, is the only state specifically mentioned in the Democratic platform.

"We just were very fortunate that the language reflected not only the party's position but our soon-to-be (presidential) nominee's position, as well," she said.

The national Republicans, though, say they have been basing their view on "sound science."

"More than 20 years and $4 billion in scientific study demonstrates that Yucca Mountain is scientifically and technically suitable for development," said Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney campaign. "The D.C. Circuit Court affirmed the actions taken by this administration and the Congress to develop the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada as the nation's first long-term geologic repository for nuclear waste."

The court ruling proves, Democrats have said, that Bush lied when he made a pledge to follow "sound science" when he proceeded with the project.

"This does delay it long enough for us to change the administration," said Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins. "We won."

State Republicans, meanwhile, are walking a careful line. On one hand, Bush's surrogates have flown into town to reassure the public that Bush has based the project on "sound science."

On the other, Republicans from Gov. Kenny Guinn to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have coyly said they'll "agree to disagree" with the president.

Ensign told the local media Friday that Bush "has been ill-served by his advisers" in proceeding with the project.

Despite Kerry's strong anti-Yucca position, his new running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., like many other Democrats, voted in favor of Yucca Mountain in 2002.

Many Republicans argue that Edwards' vote proves that both Republicans and Democrats stood behind the effort to pass Yucca Mountain, said Republican strategist Sig Rogich, who worked for the first President Bush.

"None of us want Yucca Mountain here, that goes without saying," Rogich said. "But conversely, it's pretty difficult to say it all rests with the president of the United States when Congress, with an overwhelming majority, voted to send it here. That's Republicans and Democrats."

The polls don't really help decide the issue. Polls have shown everything from Bush not being affected by his decision on Yucca Mountain to people being less likely to vote for him because of it.

Longtime Nevada pollster Kent Oram said that Yucca Mountain typically ranks far below other issues of concern such as education, crime, drugs, water and traffic congestion.

"It's not even high enough to register on discussion," he said. "It's a press issue. A lot of people talk a lot about it, but when we ask these questions for years it doesn't come up. If it does, it's minuscule."

A new poll from America Coming Together, a group working to defeat Bush, disputes that assertion, however.

The poll of registered voters found that only the rising gas prices weighed more on Nevadans' minds than Yucca Mountain.

And those worries cut across party lines, the poll found. Groups that traditionally vote Republican all were "very worried" about the project.

The question really will be how the voters perceive the debate, and the national campaigns are drawing clear comparisons.

Kerry's campaign has promised that a President Kerry would create an international blue-ribbon panel to look at the issue and come up with recommendations on what to do with the nation's nuclear waste.

"Given the urgency of this problem, it will be right away," said Sean Smith, spokesman for Kerry's Nevada campaign. "We can't have all this waste being trucked and shipped across this country."

Smith brushed aside criticism that Edwards voted for Yucca Mountain, saying Kerry's 16-year record of voting against Yucca Mountain speaks for itself.

"John Kerry is at the top of the ticket," Smith said. "It's his vision, it's his platform, and it's going to be his presidency."

Republicans from Ensign to top presidential adviser Karl Rove have questioned whether Kerry could fulfill his promise to stop the project.

Rove, who predicted that Nevadans will base their vote on the economy, the war on terrorism and the "values" of the presidential candidates, said Nevadans "are smart enough to know it's one thing to make a rash pledge that it's not coming here.

"It's another thing to be able to operate on it when you have so many states that have material in their states and for so long have been told that eventually there will be a place to put it," he said.