TV president presents award to Reid
By Anjeanette Damon
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
4/17/2004
Although Nevada has been pegged as a battleground state in the race for the U.S. presidency, only a fictional president
spoke to state Democrats at the party's convention Saturday.
Actor Martin Sheen, who plays President Jed Bartlet on NBC's The West Wing, presented U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
with the Cannon Lifetime Achievement Award.
"I don't know anyone else who would invite a man with 64 arrests and who's still on probation to present a U.S. senator
with a prize," Sheen said, referring to his multiple arrests at environmental activist demonstrations. Harry Reid has led
the fight in Congress for education and the environment.
Sheen is the second Hollywood star to stump for Reid this year as the senator makes a bid for his fourth term. Earlier
this year, actor Robert Redford held a fund-raiser for Reid in Reno.
Sheen gave the briefest speech among the convention's three keynote speakers.