Actor Redford campaigns on behalf of environment

Jean Reid Norman

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

If sex sells politics, the Environmental Accountability Fund had the right idea when it asked Robert Redford to appear as the fund brought its message to Las Vegas Wednesday.

The 67-year-old actor and director has made women's hearts throb for 40 years in movies such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Great Gatsby," "Electric Horseman" and "Indecent Proposal."

He even made a journalist -- Bob Woodward -- look sexy in "All the President's Men."

The Environmental Accountability Fund, a project of the National Resources Defense Council, tapped into that star power Wednesday as it announced its grass-roots effort to bring attention to what it said was a poor environmental record of the Bush administration.

But mostly Redford, state Sen. Dina Titus and other officials found themselves preaching to a choir of about 200 who did not require the Hollywood appeal to draw them to the Rainbow Library, 3150 N. Buffalo Drive at Cheyenne Avenue.

"I would be here either way," said Barbara Brown of Daleville, Ind., who was in Las Vegas to visit her sister. "I fully believe in saving the environment."

But, she allowed, "he's a sexy man -- interesting and fascinating."

Nevada has been identified as a battleground state that could go to either President Bush or Democrat John Kerry. That status was underscored by visits last week from all four candidates on the presidential and vice presidential tickets.

Kerry has made the state's top environmental concern -- Yucca Mountain -- one of his main campaign planks in Nevada, promising to prevent the high-level nuclear waste dump from being built if he is elected. Bush, who approved the proposal last year, has vowed to allow Nevada's court challenges to proceed. A federal court has struck down one of the key standards for the dump, but the decision is being appealed to the Supreme Court by the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear power trade association.

Yucca Mountain was mentioned repeatedly Wednesday by speakers who shared the amphitheater stage with Redford: Titus, the environmental fund's Greg Wetstone, Nevada Conservation League's Grace Potorti and Martha Marks, president of the Republicans for Environmental Protection.

"We are under attack -- serious attack -- by an administration with the worst environmental record in the history of this country," Titus said.

Redford said he usually stays out of national races, preferring congressional races or specific issues, such as the environment.

"A national race can be so loaded up with celebrities, they cancel each other out," he said.

The actor headlined a fund-raiser for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in December in Reno, where the senator, who won in 1998 by 328 votes, raised $200,000 toward this election's $5 million warchest.

Reid said it was the easiest fund-raiser he had ever done, but said Redford did not act like the Academy Award winner that he is.

"I've done events with big shots before," Reid said. "A lot kind of look over people's heads when speaking to them. He spent time with people, listened to them.

"If you didn't know who he was, you would think he's the guy down the street."

While Redford supports Kerry, Redford said his involvement was driven by his opposition to Bush and frustration with recent weakening in environmental laws such as the Clean Air and Clean Water acts he lobbied for in the 1970s.

"What is the single most important environmental issue is this administration and its attitude," he said, calling Nevada's battle over Yucca Mountain "a microcosm of the malaise of this administration."

He hammered the point home to the crowd.

"I take offense at their boots and swagger. What do they know about the West?" Redford said. "These guys not only don't get it, they don't want to get it.

"With a smirk on the face of this administration, all of the hard work that's been done is being undermined."

It was an approach reminiscent of one Redford took in 1988, after the elder President George Bush, campaigning against Michael Dukakis, called himself an environmental president.

"I said that's it," Redford said. "For four days I followed him as he went around the country. I went to each city he was in and talked about his environmental record -- not so much for Dukakis, who I thought was a good candidate, but to shred a myth."

Dukakis lost, and Redford said he doesn't know that his support now will swing many votes.

"That is an assumption I wouldn't and couldn't make," he said. "You do whatever you can as an individual."

Brown, whose favorite Redford movie is "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," said she doubted he would change many minds, sexy or not.

"I think the majority of registered voters have already made up their minds," she said.