Shelley Berkley files for second term in U.S. House

CARSON CITY - Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., filed for a second term Friday - holding a lead in the polls and a big fund-raising edge over Republican challenger John Porter.

Berkley, who filed in Las Vegas where her district is based, recently turned in a campaign finance report showing she had raised $1.2 million as of March 31.

That compares with Porter's $451,017 total. Jim Blockey, another declared Republican in the race, has raised $74,747.

Also, a Las Vegas Review-Journal-KTNV-TV poll in early March showed Berkley leading with 46 percent to Porter's 33 percent. The survey of more than 600 likely voters was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. It had a 6 percentage point error margin.

Berkley, 49, plans to campaign for re-election to her House District 1 seat on a first-term record that includes her role in getting more House Democrats to oppose a temporary nuclear waste storage dump in Nevada.

Other big issues for Berkley have been efforts to get a patients' bill of rights and to improve prescription drug benefits under Medicare.

She also has fought a move to ban sports book gambling on college events and other proposals that threatened Nevada's gambling industry.

Berkley also points to her successes in getting appropriations for Nevada. She plans a formal announcement of her candidacy at the end of the month.

Prior to her 1998 election to Congress, Berkley served in the state Assembly for one term and as a regent overseeing Nevada's university and community college system.

A New York, N.Y., native, she moved to Las Vegas with her family when she was 11, graduated from UNLV - working her way through school as a cocktail waitress and keno runner - and went on to get a law degree.