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Bob Beers Seeks The Senate

Bob Beers
City of Las Vegas/Twitter

City Councilman Bob Beers stands at a podium at city hall. Earlier this year, he announced his plans to run for senate.

Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers – not for the first time – has sights set on higher office.

Earlier this year, he announced he would seek the Republican nomination to run for the U.S. Senate in 2016.

That is the seat being vacated by retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Beers told KNPR’s State of Nevada that the most important thing he would bring with him to Washington, if he was elected, is “economic common sense.”

“As I look at what goes on in Washington, D.C., that is a component that is largely absent,” Beers said.

The councilman says he believes the government can borrow during tough economic times but it must pay it back.

“So for 80 years, we’ve spent more than we’ve taken in and I believe that injures us and it will definitely injure our children and it will really injure our grandchildren,” Beers said.

He said local and state government are restrained from wild spending but the federal government doesn’t have the same restraint.

 “It’s just common sense. You can’t do this,” Beers said.

YUCCA MOUNTAIN

Yucca Mountain, the nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has returned to headlines recently as some politicians, including freshman Congressman Cresent Hardy (R-Nev.), have suggested that Nevada needs to at least talk about the project.

Beers said when it comes to the third rail of Nevada politics, he believes the state should be part of the conversation.

“Bob Beers is realistic that that conversation is taking place everywhere in the United States and only one group is not participating in the conversation and that’s Nevada,” he said.

He doesn’t believe Nevada has had a serious conversation about the waste storage site in years. He said the state needs to look at safety, risks, long-term potential and the environment surrounding the site.

“We should be fully participating in the conversation. In not participating in the conversation, we’ve become the biggest target,” Beers said.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

One of the targets for Beers, if he gets to Washington, is the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

He said he would vote to repeal it and doesn’t believe the federal government has the authority to enact it.

“There is no authority for it," he said. "It’s not working and we can’t afford it."

IMMIGRATION

On Tuesday, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton outlined her stance on immigration reforming, favoring a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.

Beers doesn’t disagree with the idea but says the first step is securing the border first.

“You can’t have meaningful immigration policy without a secure border that’s just a given and we don’t have a secure border yet,” Beers said. “It doesn’t seem humane to deport them and leave their minor children here.”

ON LEAVING CITY COUNCIL

Beers said working on the city council is an awfully fun job, mainly because there are concrete things that people need done that a councilman can tick off a list.

“The worst possible outcome of running for U.S. senate is that I would lose and in the process be so maligned through lies that my voters in Ward 2 would not send me back to city hall in 2017, because it is the funnest (sic) job I’ve ever had,” Beers said. 

Bob Beers, Las Vegas City Councilman (Ward 2)

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Casey Morell is the coordinating producer of Nevada Public Radio's flagship broadcast State of Nevada and one of the station's midday newscast announcers. (He's also been interviewed by Jimmy Fallon, whatever that's worth.)