2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 1:17 a.m.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., is seeking his fifth term in Congress to build on what he has already accomplished and continue serving the state.

Gibbons, 59, had no primary opponent for his seat in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes most of the state except for parts of Las Vegas.

His challengers are Democrat Angie Cochran, Libertarian Brendan J. Trainor and Independent American Janine Hansen.

Gibbons says he wants to use his next term to continue to improve education, health care and homeland security.

He supports President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and wants to send more education dollars directly to the classroom.

Gibbons sits on the House Armed Services, Intelligence and Homeland Security committees. He is also vice chairman of the House Resources Committee.

Gibbons strongly opposes a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. As a geologist, he says he cannot accept the idea that putting such highly radioactive material in a mountain would work.

"We have never built anything that lasts 10,000 years," Gibbons said.

Prior to his election to Congress in 1996, Gibbons was a three-term state assemblyman. He was a combat pilot in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, a colonel in the Air National Guard and flew for Delta and Western airlines.

Cochran, 61, hopes her third try at public office will be a winner. She lost previous attempts to get a seat on the Pahrump Town Board and the Nye County Commission.

"I am good for Nevada and good for the county," Cochran said.

She considers herself a "conservative Democrat" who could reach out to people in the district.

If elected, Cochran said she would work on education issues and would not fight the Yucca repository.

Cochran studied education and Spanish for four years at UNLV but did not receive her degree, she said. She owns an insulation business.

Hansen, 52, says Republicans and Democrats are not doing enough to protect the country from illegal immigrants. The country needs tougher rules against the "illegal invasion" of people coming in from other countries, she said.

"President Reagan said that a nation without borders is no nation at all," Hansen said. "People ought to obey the law."

Hansen, who is executive director of her party, strongly opposes the Patriot Act and is the spokeswoman for the Nevada Campaign to Defeat the Patriot Act.

"It's a clear threat to our constitutional liberties," Hansen, who is the National Ballot Access coordinator for the National Constitution Party, said.

She opposes the war in Iraq and a possible renewal of a military draft.

"Iraq is a disaster," she said. "It has not made it better for the Iraqi people or for us."

If elected, Hansen wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service to "cut taxes and useless government spending." She also opposes Yucca Mountain.

Hansen has a bachelor or science in child development and family relations from Brigham Young University.

Trainor, head of his party in Nevada, says the government needs to stop meddling in other countries' affairs and private citizens' lives.

"Government is the only corporation that, when it fails, it gets more money and gets more power," Trainor, 56, said. "Any other corporation would be out of business. The government is way too big. We are a republic, not an empire."

If elected, Trainor wants to repeal laws such as the "counterproductive" Patriot Act and other homeland security laws

"At best it is a pork-barrel process to funnel money to local police for goodies," Trainor said.

He said he would like to see pilots carry guns and supports passengers being able to carry guns also.

"If the passengers on 9/11 had guns, the crashes into the World Trade Center would never had happened," he said.

He opposes Yucca Mountain, saying the nuclear industry has to "stand on its own two feet" so the government should not be paying its insurance or taking its waste.

He a producer and director of public access television shows.