Yucca may be creating rift in GOP ranks

Kirsten Searer

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 11:28 a.m.

RENO -- Republicans downplayed talk that their party is bucking its traditional stance of opposing Yucca Mountain, but rhetoric at this weekend's state convention suggests there could be a growing divide within the party.

The party's top state official, Gov. Kenny Guinn, said it would be a strategic mistake for the Silver State to negotiate now with the federal government for benefits as a trade-off for Yucca.

But some Republicans from rural counties said it's important to begin negotiations about the project, which they see as inevitable and a potential cash cow for poor, rural Nevada counties.

Guinn and many of the state's top Republican leaders quickly spoke out to say they will continue to battle the proposed project, which would place the nation's spent nuclear waste 90 miles from Las Vegas.

Now is not the time to open talks with the federal government over what Nevada could get in exchange for the project, he said.

"When you're at your weakest point, you don't want to start negotiating," he said, adding that he thinks the state has the momentum to win any of its six lawsuits in court, where the issue will be decided on legal merit instead of politics.

"We only have to win one of those and it puts us in a position where they have to delay, delay, delay," he said.

Guinn said he has always understood that some rural Republicans support the project. He said that, according to polls he has seen, the number of people who support the project hasn't wavered significantly in recent years.

Democrats also expressed disagreement with the planks.

"It seems like it's a real shift between a lot of Republican office holders and candidates and the Republican party," said Sean Sinclair, a spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, said she doesn't believe that all rural Nevadans support Yucca Mountain -- just some political leaders who are looking for money for their counties.

The issue largely played out while the Republican platform committee worked on Thursday, committee members said. The debate was closed to the press.

At first, several Republicans from rural counties pushed for a platform that would specifically call for the state to begin negotiations with the federal government over the planned Yucca Mountain project.

The proposed plank read: "We encourage the state of Nevada to begin negotiating with the federal government and other entities to minimize any negative impacts and maximize any benefits in the event that Yucca Mountain becomes a reality."

Tanya Metaska, a Nye County Republican present at the debate, said the project is inevitable and the state should make the best of the situation.

"The rural counties, which include Nye County, are always strapped for money," she said. "Most of our county is federally managed land."

Several Clark County Republicans immediately objected to the proposed plank, saying the language was too strong and could be used against Republicans this election year, said Ed Gobel, a Republican assembly candidate who attended the platform debate.

"They want money," Gobel said. "It's pure and simple a money issue."

After compromising, the Republicans passed two planks that allude to dealing with federal projects.

The final planks, which were passed without debate on Saturday on the floor of the convention, still called for the state to negotiate with the government "to minimize negative impacts from federal control and exploitation of federally managed lands in Nevada."

Republicans such as Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Rep. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter all said they will maintain resolve to fight the project.

Sandoval gave a speech to Republicans on Saturday morning about his efforts to stop Yucca Mountain through several federal lawsuits. He said dissent in the party won't affect his court battles.

"Certainly from a perception standpoint it could create at least some thoughts in Congress and Washington (that) there is sympathy in Nevada," Sandoval said after the breakfast speach.

Some Republicans, he said, "will agree to disagree."

Yet even the state party's newly elected chairwoman said Saturday that she understands many rural Nevadans support the project and that even Clark County Republicans don't see Yucca Mountain as one of the top issues in the state.

"I just think times have changed," said Earlene Forsythe, who was elected as the party's chairwoman on Thursday.

"I don't think it's such in the forefront as an issue with the people in Nevada," she said, adding that when she ran for the Assembly in Clark County in 2002, people were more concerned about issues such as education, the moral standing of society and protection of borders.

Gibbons said he was opposed to the platform planks but did not talk to Republicans about dropping them.

"I don't believe it's a good idea to raise the white flag on Yucca Mountain," he said.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, has called for the state to negotiate over Yucca Mountain and said this weekend he thought the platform plank was on track.

"It is my belief that the waste is going to come, so we should try to get money for it," he said.

Republicans meeting in Reno also elected delegates to this year's national convention and heard from party leaders such as Guinn, former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed and senate candidate Richard Ziser.