MARK WAITE / PVT Chip Carter, standing at right, speaks to local Democrats at the Pahrump Community Library Saturday. Pictured from left are local Democrats Ralph DeFeo, Loyal Scarlett and Loyal Watkins. Advertisement

James "Chip" Carter III, one of the sons of former President Jimmy Carter, told local Democrats Saturday that he left his home in Decatur, Ga., to campaign for his brother, U.S. Senate candidate Jack Carter, after hearing reports about his illness.

Jack Carter was sidelined with colonitis, but brother Chip said he expected the candidate to be back on the campaign trail by this past Monday after being sidelined for about three weeks. Chip said he decided to stay in Nevada and help his brother campaign up to the Nov. 7 general election.

Jack Carter is running against the incumbent, Republican U.S. Sen. John Ensign.

"He and Bush ran as compassionate conservatives. I would've been happy with a competent conservative," Chip Carter said.

If Jack Carter wins, the Democrats will win back the U.S. Senate, Chip Carter said. "You can trust him, anything he says, he's going to do."

Chip Carter said he never saw his brother campaign. They were both busy campaigning for their father when he won the presidency in 1976 but lost his bid for a second term in 1980 to Ronald Reagan. Chip Carter quipped that, when his father lost the presidency, the Secret Service agents assigned to watch him were sent to monitor Ronald Reagan Jr., who at the time was taking ballet lessons in New York. He said he sent Reagan the Younger a size 11 tutu as a joke.

Chip's only foray into politics was winning the race for mayor of Plains, Ga., 110 votes to 61.

But he spoke the political line of a polished 2006 Democratic candidate in arguing the U.S. government has lost the moral authority that made it a great nation by allowing pre-emptive strikes and not talking to our enemies.

"People in Iran love Americans. Many of them have family and friends that live in America," Chip Carter said.

Chip said he has a one-quarter interest in an olive-pressing plant outside of Amman, Jordan. He also counsels Arabs on investments, but said that while Arabs make twice as much money off oil as they did before, they won't spend their money in America because of what they perceive as a war on Islam.

Chip Carter also had problems with the way the U.S. reacted to the Hurricane Katrina, with pictures of the Louisiana Superdome making America look like a Third World country.

Carter spoke against privatizing Social Security, which he said "would put elderly Americans at the mercy of Wall Street brokers."

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter will be the featured guest at a Democratic fund-raiser during an ice cream social at the Pahrump Nugget at 5:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 2.