Kerry camp bringing out celebrities

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.

BOSTON -- The Kerry campaign is bringing out celebrities, senators and strategists to make sure the Nevada delegation knows how important the state is to the election.

Actor John Cusack stopped by a Nevada delegation breakfast at the 2004 Democratic National Convention this morning saying the Kerry campaign "asked me to come by some of these swing states."

"You guys are in the vote-getting business," Cusack said, who spoke for about five minutes.

The campaign also sent its strategist Michael Whouley, who has worked with John Kerry for 22 years to remind the delegates of Kerry's leadership and the state's role in the election.

"Nevada is a big state for us," Whouley said with his Boston accent.

Whouley said some counts may show Kerry behind in important states but that "it wouldn't be a John Kerry campaign if we weren't behind."

"I believe in John Kerry as passionately as I believe in anything," Whouley said. "He's my friend."

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell also spoke to the delegates this morning at the request of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to make sure to "put Nevada in the "D" column in November.

"It's truly the tossup of tossups," Cantwell said after her remarks.

Reid had a funeral to attend but will return to Boston later today, according to his staff.

Cantwell praised the senator for his dedication in fighting to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada. The Energy Department plans to store 77,000 tons of spent fuel at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas despite the state's strong opposition to the plan. Kerry has said he would stop the project.

Cantwell has nuclear waste problems of her own with million of gallon of high-level liquid waste stored in underground tanks at the Hanford site. She said Kerry spoke to her at the Red Sox game on Sunday that he wants to go over the issue with her.

She emphasized that a Kerry administration would have a better energy policy and "no one that's available to the highest bidder."

"If there is any place were we can't have the lights go out, it's Nevada," Cantwell said. She has relatives that live in Las Vegas.

In an separate, but surprisingly coincidental celebrity run-in, Richard Schiff, who plays Toby Ziegler, the communications director for a fictional Democratic U.S. president on the television show "The West Wing," sat down next to Las Vegas delegate Julie Whitacre in the Fleet Center Monday night.

She said he looked at her and said "you must be an important state to have these seats."

She laughed telling the story since she could not remember his real name but only as Toby from "The West Wing." She called a friend to say that "Toby" sat next to her, only to be reminded that he is a fictional character.