Reid says Kerry would be friend to Nevada

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is to be in Las Vegas on Sunday to speak at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Unity Conference at the Bally's event center.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be with Kerry on Sunday for the 3 p.m. speech.

Nevadans like Kerry "and will like him even better after they get a chance to know him more," Reid said in a conference call this morning. "(John Kerry) is an extremely good friend to our state."

Reid said he knows Kerry well from their work together in the Senate. Kerry is the junior senator from Massachusetts.

Reid pointed to Nevada's "battleground state" status in the upcoming presidential election and said residents will be seeing more of Kerry as Election Day gets closer.

"If you look at his opponent, President Bush came to Nevada on one occasion (as a candidate), hid up at the lake (Tahoe) and would not answer a single question," Reid said.

Bush won his presidency with votes from Nevada, but "then just turned his back on it," Reid said, referring to Bush's campaign promise to reject the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository unless scientific evidence showed it would be safe. After he took office, Bush approved the project despite what opponents point to as documented flaws.

"He (President Bush) didn't even look at the report," Reid said. "He took care of his pals in the utility industry, like big oil, and said go ahead and do Yucca Mountain. He, President Bush, acts in the best interest of energy companies and not in the state of Nevada."

"I can speak from personal experience on how I went to John Kerry every time we needed him, especially on nuclear waste, and he was always there," Reid said. "He will fight for what I believe is important."

Reid said he has not spoken to Kerry about the Yucca issue for some time, but will soon. Kerry has voted against the project in the past and has said during his presidential campaign that he is against it.

Reid said that Kerry understands science and would want the department to do more research. Reid said he would "bet a lot" on a Kerry administration not requesting almost a billion dollars for the Yucca project, as the Bush administration has this year, on top of growing national debt.

Kerry last visited Las Vegas on Feb. 13, a day before the state's Democratic Caucus. Kerry won that caucus in a landslide.