Reno lawmaker to leave office; Carson City senator to run again

Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998 | 10:42 a.m.

Assemblyman Pete Ernaut, R-Reno, who is managing Kenny Guinn's gubernatorial campaign, said Wednesday he won't seek re-election to a fourth two-year term. He added he wants to spend more time on his advertising business and with his family.

Sen. Ernie Adler, D-Carson City, said he will seek a third four-year term in the Senate, representing the capital district.

Ernaut, 33, had accepted the assignment with Guinn but said earlier he might run for another term simultaneously.

"I made the decision to leave public office in order to spend more time with my wife, Wendy, and my 1-year-old son Bobby," Ernaut said. But he said he may later "consider a future role in public service."

His District 37 is expected to remain in Republican hands because it has twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats.

Adler's district, where Republicans hold a 3,300-voter registration edge, is a key to Democrats' strategy to take control of the 21-member Senate in the November election. The upper house now has a 12-9 GOP majority.

Adler, 47, has served two terms in the Assembly and two in the Senate.

"I am proud of my achievements in the Legislature in education and conservation over the past 12 years," he said.

Ten Senate seats, seven of them held by Republicans, are up for grabs this year.

Adler said his legislative priorities for next year are to continue to improve the quality of education, to streamline the juvenile justice system, to expand home care for senior citizens and to improve wages and health benefits for state employees.

Adler has sponsored legislation to toughen truancy laws and create charter schools and has supported campaign and welfare reform laws.

Adler, a former chief deputy attorney general in the criminal division, is an attorney in private practice in Carson City. He and his wife, Sarah, have three children.