RENO, Nev. (AP) - Vice President Joe Biden visited economically troubled Nevada on Friday to promote the progress of the federal stimulus program and boost the re-election campaign of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has troubles of his own.
Hundreds of backers and a handful of protesters gathered at the University of Nevada, Reno, where Biden and Reid spoke after a $2,400-a-plate fundraising breakfast.
Biden arrived with a message that the Nevada Democrat is working successfully in Washington to help his home state, which has been hit hard by the recession. He said Reid's leadership was instrumental in the passage of the $787 billion stimulus package.
"Harry is the son of a hard-rock miner, and I'll tell you what, his father produced a hard-rock guy. He knows what is worth fighting over," Biden told an invitation-only crowd of about 500.
"This guy's got guts. It takes some nerve to do what we have to do to revive the economy, and Harry has it," the vice president said. "Try having your state serviced when you don't have a senior senator like Harry."
Biden said the stimulus package is beginning to help stabilize the economy.
"People forget we were in a free fall with the economy," he said.
In remarks before Biden's speech, Reid said he's convinced the stimulus package helped save the world's economy.
"Times are tough. We know how high unemployment is. And I want you all to focus on how much worse things would have been had we not acted," Reid said.
Nevertheless, Nevada tops the list of the most economically stressed states, according to an analysis by The Associated Press, and that could spell trouble for Reid, whose pitch to voters has relied on what he can do for the state from his position in the Senate.
Republican critics seized on the fact that the 13.2 percent jobless rate is at a historic high and Nevada leads the nation in the rate of foreclosures and bankruptcies. The casino industry, the economic engine that drives the state, has been battered by reluctant tourists and gamblers pinching their pennies.
"Nevadans know that Sen. Reid pushed hard to get this stimulus package through the Senate, but their state has lost over 43,000 jobs lost since the legislation was signed into law," said Jahan Wilcox, Republican National Committee spokesman.
"The people of Nevada deserve to know why the leader of the Senate wasted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars just to lose tens of thousands of jobs in the Silver State," he said.
A group of four protesters stood across the street from the motorcade's arrival area outside the Lawlor Events Center with signs that read "Biden-Reid on a bankroll - ours," "No more spending - broke," and "How's the penthouse on the Ritz, Harry?"
A newspaper poll earlier this month showed Reid trailing two Republicans who are running to unseat him: former state GOP chairwoman Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian, son of former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.
Lowden sponsored a free breakfast of coffee and doughnuts in a Reno hotel-casino parking lot Friday to people who brought food for the local food bank - a move intended to underscore the contrast to Reid's pricey breakfast.
Lowden said Reid's clout as majority leader is exaggerated. She said Nevada currently gets back 65 cents for every dollar taxpayers send to Washington, D.C., compared with 98 cents on the dollar while former Republican Sen. Paul Laxalt represented Nevada from 1974 to 1987.
Among the people lined up to get into the Lawlor Events Center for Biden's event was Cloyd Phillips, executive director of a local community services agency that he says has received stimulus funds. He told the Reno Gazette-Journal he wanted to make sure he got word to Biden and Reid that small groups are benefiting from the recovery act.
Biden's visit comes five months after President Barack Obama traveled to Las Vegas to headline a celebrity fundraiser for Reid featuring performances by Bette Midler and Sheryl Crow.
Obama urged Nevadans to return Reid for another six-year term, saying his leadership was crucial to passing the stimulus package and an expansion of children's health insurance earlier this year.
Reid "knows how to get things done," the president said.
