Monday, May 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS: Kerry stumps in Las Vegas

Democrat highlights differences with Bush, promises no Yucca repository

Presidential candidate John Kerry speaks at a fund-raiser Sunday at the Four Seasons. Kerry raised about $500,000 in his trip to Las Vegas. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., speaks at a Teamsters union rally at Bally's on Sunday. Kerry vowed to protect working families. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Kerry waves to photographers after being greeted at McCarran International Airport Sunday by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry campaigned for seven hours in Las Vegas on Sunday, shoring up his party's labor base, raising money and reaching out to Nevada voters to swing the battleground state back into the blue column.

He even took some advice on who his running mate should be.

Throughout the day, Kerry discussed what he called the Bush administration's failed policies and broken promises, from the war on terrorism to Medicare reform to a lack of funding for No Child Left Behind education reforms.

"The state of Nevada knows that this president clearly stood up and said to the governor and the citizens of this state, 'If I am president, you're not going to have Yucca Mountain as a repository,' " Kerry told about 100 people at a reception at the Four Seasons.

"And the fact is, without even waiting for science, he just went ahead and signed off and broke the promises ... Rest assured Nevada, if I am president of the United States, Yucca Mountain will not be a repository."

In an interview following his remarks, Kerry said his record of voting against the proposed nuclear waste repository, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, proves he will keep his word.

"We're going to do 21st century scientific research in order to figure (it) out. I don't think we've put our science to the effort of really figuring out what to do, and I don't like the idea of just plunking it down somewhere," Kerry said in an interview.

Asked why Nevada voters should believe him, given Bush's promise in 2000 to base a Yucca Mountain decision on "sound science," Kerry bristled at the comparison.

"I voted," he said. "I voted. I cast my vote. George Bush never had. And I have a record of it and (Nevada Sen.) Harry Reid to vouch for my word."

The reception and a $5,000-a-person dinner that followed raised about $500,000, $300,000 of which went to Kerry's campaign and $200,000 of which went to the Democratic National Committee.

Also in the interview, Kerry discounted the Bush-Cheney campaign's efforts to discredit him as a flip-flopper.

"They want people to believe that; it's just not true," Kerry said.

He then highlighted his plan to reduce the deficit by half, to provide health insurance for millions and still offer tax cuts for businesses and middle class Americans.

Kerry said the GOP campaign is trying to discredit him because "they have nothing to run on; they can't show people their record.

"They can't come out and show people the jobs they created. They can't come out and show people the environment they've protected. They can't show people the schools they've funded properly. They can't show people the health care they've given them."

"Since they have no record to run on, they attack John Kerry, try to make him into something he isn't. I think the American people will see through it."

Kerry arrived in Las Vegas about noon on his campaign's 737-800, a white Miami Air plane emblazoned with light green and purple lines.

He met briefly with veterans and Reid at the airport before arriving in a motorcade at Bally's, where the Teamsters Unity Conference was under way.

The Teamsters, with 1.4 million members, is one of the most active labor unions in the nation during election years.

Some of Kerry's votes on trade agreements, which caused him some early trouble in the Democratic fight for the nomination, still rub many union members the wrong way.

Kerry voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which labor unions think does not contain enough enforceable provisions to protect American jobs.

But Teamsters President James Hoffa, in a meeting with reporters, said Kerry is evolving on the trade issues important to the union base, which has much of the national Democratic Party's strongest support.

Hoffa said he has advised Kerry to pick Congressman Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., as his running mate.

"He needs somebody that's high-profile, somebody that can go out and carry a state, somebody that has a constituency, somebody that can deliver," he said.

"If Dick Gephardt can go out and deliver Missouri, that's a big up, and we can take Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee."

Donna Brazille, who was Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000, was pleased to see Gephardt in the front row at the Teamsters event.

"If Dick Gephardt is on that ticket my friends, we're going to win, and we're going to win big," she said to thunderous applause.

In the interview near the end of the trip, Kerry said he was not prepared to discuss his vice presidential selection and would not be until much closer to the July national convention.

"I get a lot of advice from everybody," Kerry said. "I listen to the advice."

His speech to Teamsters focused on creating jobs and building a stronger middle class, in part by repealing tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year to pay for a sweeping health insurance program.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., met with reporters late Sunday afternoon at the local Bush-Cheney office and defended the president's tax cuts, while assailing Kerry's opposition to them.

"He (Kerry) voted against both of the tax cuts that we had in the last few years that President Bush pushed through," Ensign said.

"We really suffered post-Sept. 11, and those tax cuts have been a huge boost to our economy here in the state," he said.

Kerry got laughs at both the Teamsters event and the reception with a line about the nation's capital, where he has served for 22 years as a Massachusetts senator.

"This place is the complete opposite of Washington," he said. "In Vegas, people gamble with their own money."

Several Republicans were at the Four Seasons event, including media magnate Brian Greenspun and developer Phil Peckman. Kerry made a pitch to them to get some of their friends to cross the aisle on Nov. 2.

In 2000, Bush narrowly defeated Gore, making Nevada a "red" state after it had gone to Clinton in the previous two elections.

Kerry hyped the economic growth under the Clinton administration and told Republicans to be wary of what's happening in Washington.

"There is nothing conservative about driving up deficits as far as the eye can see," Kerry said. "There is nothing conservative about allowing your administration to flagrantly cross that brilliant line drawn by the founding fathers that divides the figures of church and state in this country."

Kerry's plane left Las Vegas shortly after 7 p.m., headed for Topeka, Kan., where today both he and Bush plan separate events to mark the 50th anniversary of the integration of schools with the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

Review-Journal writer Frank Curreri contributed to this report.