Experience becomes main platform in several state races

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 12:20 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada will have its first woman state controller after the Nov. 3 election.

Controller Darrel Daines is retiring after four terms, and Republican state Sen. Kathy Augustine of Las Vegas is competing against Democrat Mary Sanada of Reno for the job.

The key issue has been experience for the office that pays the state's bills and keeps the official accounting records. The controller also is a member of the state Transportation Board that allocates money for highway building.

Sanada, 50, worked 10 years as chief accountant in the controller's office and then ran four years ago for the job. She was defeated in the Democratic primary election. At the time, she was critical of Daines and said the office needed new blood.

She's a certified public accountant who worked as an auditor for both the state Public Service Commission and the Legislative Counsel Bureau. She has seven years of experience with a private accounting firm. She says the legislative experience of Augustine is irrelevant.

"The only issue is qualifications," Sanada says. "The voters will decide whether they want a professional or a politician. Private industry would never hire a person who is a public administrator as a controller.

"She (Augustine) has never prepared a financial statement," Sanada said, adding that such a task is one of the main duties of the controller. "I doubt she even knows how to read one."

Augustine, 42, said the office needs an administrator and points out that Daines and his chief deputy, Ken West, are not CPAs. "I have the administrative experience and the political background to bring the office together. We have 32 CPAs and accountants in the office. I know my opponent worked in the office, but she lacks the administrative experience and political background.

"I don't know of any elective office in Nevada that requires a CPA. A CPA is a term used in the private sector and not in the government sector."

She worked in the airline industry as a flight-crew controller and pay accountant. She served one term in the Assembly before being elected to the Senate in 1994. She formerly taught school and has a master's degree in public administration.

Also in the race are two men from splinter political parties, but they are not given much chance.

Jim Lee, 78, of Pahrump, is a Libertarian who said he hasn't done any campaigning. "I've been watching the cactus grow," he quipped. Asked why he's qualified, he said he and his wife raised seven children and owned property. Now retired, Lee said he also served in management positions while in the aircraft industry in Southern California.

Thomas F. Jefferson of Elko is an Independent American Party candidate who has made two unsuccessful tries for office before. He ran for governor in 1978 and for Congress in 1994. He owned an auto-parts store and also served as a financial-investments advisor for a family-owned business.

The race to succeed retiring state Treasurer Bob Seale pits his chief deputy, Brian Krolicki, a Republican, against two splinter-party candidates. No Democrat filed.

Krolicki, 38, won the GOP primary election over former Treasurer Ken Santor. He worked for Seale for eight years and before that was employed by the Bankers Trust Co. and the finance firm of Smith Barney in San Francisco and the Middle East.

The treasurer's office is responsible for the management of billions of dollars in financial transactions and is running the fledgling College Pre-Paid Savings Plan. The office was recently awarded the first Cashman Good Government Award by the Nevada Taxpayers Association for efficient operation.

"The taxpayers literally can't afford a state treasurer who does not have a firm grasp on finance -- whether it concerns events on a trading floor in New York City or in the day-to-day activities in the state treasury," said Krolicki, who lives in Douglas County.

Daniel Fylstra, 47, president of a computer-software company based at Incline Village, is the Libertarian candidate and says he knows "this is an uphill battle because I'm a political unknown. But I'm qualified." He has 25 years of experience in investments and computers. Seale's office, he says, has done its basic job of managing state funds effectively.

Fylstra said lower interest rates are expected in the coming years, and that means less money for the state on its investments. He said the next treasurer must focus on timely cash management and reducing the cost of handling the nearly 3 million checks that are deposited and paid each year.

The third candidate is Merrit "Ike" Yochum, 72, who has run four times for the Assembly and once for attorney general. Yochum said, "Good grief, I don't need the job," but he added that he wants to keep his Independent American Party alive.

He has owned iron, electrical, commercial-fishing and charter-boat businesses and is now starting to grow grapes on some land he owns in Napa Valley.

Secretary of State Dean Heller, who once considered running for governor, decided instead to go for a second term. The 37-year-old Republican, who served two terms in the Assembly, does not have a Democratic opponent but drew three challengers from minor parties.

The state's chief election officer, Heller said he has helped push new laws for disclosure of campaign finances. The laws have also been changed to attract more companies to incorporate in Nevada. And he wants to push for passage of a public-records law that will guarantee citizens access to government documents.

Running against Heller is Lois Avery, 51, of Sparks, who was one of the founders of the Natural Law Party in Nevada and who has run for the U.S. Senate and Congress twice. She helps her husband in their electrical-engineering business and says she's concerned "about the integrity of the voting machines." She said slot machines undergo more rigorous testing than the electronic voting devices.

Mary Ann Dickens, 61, of Carson City, is the Independent American Party candidate. She's employed by a resident agent firm and said, "My party talked me into running." She said Heller "is doing a good job."

Robert F. Brost, who runs a business and computer consulting firm at Incline Village, is the Libertarian candidate. He's running on a platform of less government and more freedom. He says his lack of political experience is an asset because he's in touch with the "real life" of the public.