Las Vegas Sun

November 29, 2009

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Race on for newly created Henderson JOP

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Incumbent Henderson Justice of the Peace Kent Dawson is the only attorney in the race for the recently created seat.

In the September primary election, that translated into nearly 65 percent of the vote and a seemingly easy runoff on Nov. 5 for the 24-year Henderson resident.

His opponent, Robertson Beauchamp, 41, is a former Marine Corps officer and customer engineer with Nevada Power Co. He has not mounted an aggressive campaign.

The Clark County Commission appointed Dawson in January as the city's second justice of the peace after Henderson passed the 100,000 population mark.

But the city still isn't large enough to require that the judges be lawyers.

Even so, Dawson, 51, has touted his legal background.

"You need to have legal experience to sit and rule on these cases," he said.

Beauchamp, a 1986 graduate of the University of Arizona, and a resident of Henderson for six years, said he considers himself to be "the candidate that represents the common person."

He said he wants to improve the court system and knows that the Henderson justice of the peace position is the highest judicial seat that a nonlawyer can attain.

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