Backstory: Running for their lives

By Michael Green

Between abuses of prisoners and truth in Iraq, and the occasional ethics hearing, the filing deadline for office went unremarked here. Sorry, but it's no longer unremarked:

• It will be interesting to see whether the initiative petition and attorney general's opinion will hurt present and past government employees seeking re-election, and whether voting for a tax hike will hurt incumbents, since all but a couple supported an increase of some kind. The answer is, probably not, but a couple will lose for other reasons.

• The state Senate District 4 primary could get wild. The district includes traditionally African-American West Las Vegas, which includes increasing numbers of Latinos--and mostly white areas. Of the five Democrats in the primary, four are African-Americans. Whether and how the vote splits bears watching and could help the white candidate.

Also, County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates' area overlaps with part of the state Senate district. She faces a challenge from Joe Neal, who represented the area for eight terms and figures to lose in the primary, though not without growling about and from gaming. Neal could play a role in the Senate race, as a campaigner or as a target, with others caught in the crossfire.

• State Senate District 5 incumbent Ann O'Connell faces primary challenger Dr. Joe Heck, who seems to be staking out a more moderate position than O'Connell. He flays the previous Legislature--not for passing a tax hike to fund life's necessities, which she fought, but for behaving so ridiculously. Yet Heck may have to watch what he says about O'Connell. Attacking recently widowed grandmothers isn't always good politics. It might not raise hell, but who knows whether it will raise Heck.

• Speaking of grandmothers under attack, County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey attracted several Democratic primary opponents, given charges that she dwelled in the lap of luxury, so to speak. But don't forget the GOP. North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck, whom the commissioner backed for the nonpartisan council, figures to beat Glen Easter, whose family has been criticizing North Las Vegas government for a while.

Buck and Kincaid-Chauncey once were allies against longtime NLV Municipal Judge Gary Davis. Buck and her husband used to videotape Davis and his family taking out the trash, looking for evidence against him. Evidence is a great issue in this race.

• Watch the women in judicial races. Family Court Judge Cynthia Dianne Steel faces three men in one Supreme Court battle. In another, Ron Parraguirre figures to be the favorite--as a respected local district judge and because his family name is known in Northern Nevada, which will help him. But his competitors include former state Sen. Lori Lipman Brown, beloved among some Nevada liberals. Elizabeth Gonzales is running in District Court Department 11 and several women are opposing incumbent male judges.

Women recently have run well in races for open judicial seats. Nor has it hurt them when challenging incumbents. Making that all the odder, many voters claim to want incredibly tough judges, and many sexists think men are tougher than women.

• University regent races bear watching, with the recent removals of CCSN president Ron Remington and lobbyist John Cummings playing a role. Tom Kirkpatrick angered some one-time supporters by giving an interview in the "investigation" of them, then voting to fire them without letting them address the charges against them, despite the board's reliance in part on dubious evidence. Several candidates are in the field against him.

One of Kirkpatrick's colleagues, Elko's Marcia Bandera, opted not to run, at least partly because that community resented her treatment of Remington, still popular there after his years at Great Basin College. Two candidates filed: Dorothy Gallagher, a former longtime board member who knifed Remington when he applied to move down here, then retired and pushed Bandera as her successor; and Stan Aiazza, an Elko rancher and college administrator there when Remington was around.

And Sparks offers fun. Incumbent Doug Hill, a longtime foe of reality and any success in Southern Nevada higher education, has an opponent familiar here: former Assemblyman Bob Price, now living up north. His wife, Nancy, spent a controversial term as a regent and filed against Hill, then withdrew.

• In Clark County School Board District C, Tick Segerblom is running after years of suing the district over its treatment of employees. What might top administrators quietly do if he proves to be a strong candidate? Stay tuned.

• Newly appointed County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald can breathe a sigh of relief. Tim Cory almost beat Mark James in the same race two years ago by running from the far right. Boggs McDonald is more conservative than James, which might have hurt Cory.

In keeping with Sharon Shaffer filing in the Democratic state Senate primary against Ray, her incumbent Republican husband, and Mike Schaefer (Confused? I am.), Cory's brother Ken is running to keep the District Court judgeship to which he was appointed. If Tim Cory had stayed in the race, name recognition could have cut both ways: It might have hurt the judge in some quarters that his brother is a right-winger.

Now if one of the Shaffers married a Cory...