Democrats most obliging in their bid for Nevada

The three leading Democratic candidates for president tussled Tuesday over a proposed nuclear waste dump, energy policy and gun use in a restrained debate that explored issues key to voters who will caucus here Saturday.

After a week spent in testy exchanges on the subject of race, the candidates went out of their way to be deferential, opening the debate with a series of acknowledgments in which all agreed that the others were caring candidates supportive of civil rights.

The contenders -- New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards -- spent much of their time critiquing the Bush administration’s policies.

But they did probe differences.

After moderator Brian Williams, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor, asked for their views on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, Obama vowed to “end the notion” of using the rural Nevada site to deposit nuclear waste.

“I’ve been clear from the start that Yucca, I think, was a misconceived project,” he said.

But Clinton quickly cited her vote against the proposal in 2001. She noted that one of Obama’s key supporters had tried to push the project. And she pointed out that Edwards had twice voted in favor of the nuclear site.

“I have consistently and persistently been against Yucca Mountain, and I will make sure it does not come into effect when I’m president,” she said.

Edwards, for his part, criticized past statements by Obama that he would be open to the construction of nuclear plants, and by Clinton that she was “agnostic” on the subject.

“I am not for it or agnostic,” Edwards said. “I am against building more nuclear power plants, because I do not think we have a safe way to dispose of the waste.”

The candidates also skirmished over the 2005 energy bill. Signed by President Bush, it was the first national energy legislation in more than a decade. Obama said he supported it as a way to spur the development of alternative energy sources.

“If we are going to deal with our dependence on foreign oil, then we’re going to have to ramp up how we’re producing energy here in the United States,” the Illinois senator said.

Clinton called the bill a giveaway to the energy industry that had been concocted by Vice President Dick Cheney.

“It was the wrong policy for America,” she said. “It was so heavily tilted toward the special interests that many of us, at the time, said, ‘You know, that’s not going to move us on the path we need.’ ”

As it had been in the discussion of Yucca Mountain, the location of the debate was apparent when the subject of guns arose.

Questioner Tim Russert, the moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” asked Clinton whether she had backed off a promise made in her Senate race in 2000 to include every handgun sale in a national registry.

Perhaps mindful that more than 1 in 3 Nevada households contains a firearm, Clinton said she was a “political realist” on the issue. She did not acknowledge that she had recanted the promise though, until Russert asked her again. “Yes,” she said.

Obama agreed that a national registry was impossible politically, and he promised to help law enforcement around what he said was a blockade by the National Rifle Assn. on legislation to track down unscrupulous gun dealers.

“It is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot,” he said. “And then you’ve got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago.”

Edwards cited his own rural upbringing and defended the 2nd Amendment. But, he said, “I don’t believe that means you need an AK-47 to hunt.”

The relative calm of the proceedings belied the drama that preceded the event. Just before MSNBC began airing it, the state Supreme Court overturned a lower court order that challenger Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio be included.

The lower court judge had ruled that an initial invitation to Kucinich served as a binding contract. MSNBC, the debate sponsor, said that it rescinded its invitation because of Kucinich’s poor showing in the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses.

For the Democrats, the Nevada caucuses on Saturday are a hoped-for springboard to the Jan. 26 South Carolina primary and to the blockbuster grouping on Feb. 5 of more than 20 states, including California.

Throughout the debate, Clinton in particular returned often to Nevada and its concerns. But the debate itself centered initially not on the state or western issues but on the race controversy that enveloped the campaign in recent days.

Clinton and Obama called a truce on Monday, and that held during the Tuesday debate. Asked at the beginning of the debate about a supporter’s insinuation about youthful drug use by Obama, Clinton blamed the dust-up on “exuberant and sometimes uncontrollable supporters.”

She later declined to address Russert’s reminder that she had once promised to rid her campaign of anyone making such comments.

Obama, too, was taken to task for his campaign’s role in spreading the comments to reporters. He blamed “overzealous” aides and said that he believed all of the candidates were “committed to racial equality.”

Pocketbook issues took up much of the debate, also sponsored by the state Democratic Party and groups representing African American and Latino interests.

Each candidate detailed economic plans and expressed sympathy for those caught in the nation’s mortgage meltdown. Clinton and Edwards said they regretted voting in 2001 for a bill that would have made it tougher for people to erase personal debt through bankruptcy.

Edwards said he “absolutely” regretted his vote. Although she voted for the bill, Clinton said she was pleased that it failed.

“It was a bill that had some things I agreed with and other things I didn’t agree with, and I was happy that it never became law,” she said.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

peter.nicholas@latimes.com