Vote Smart quizzes candidates

Scott Reeder

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 11:27 a.m.

Imagine a test where any answer is right.

To pass you just have to give an answer -- any answer.

Who could fail such a test?

Politicians.

Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan national political awareness group, handed out its report cards Wednesday for Nevada pols.

"To wind up on our honor roll, you just had to answer 70 percent of the questions on the survey of issues," said Lucy Skjelstad, a spokesperson for Project Vote Smart.

After receiving the finished surveys, they are posted on the internet at: www.vote-smart.org. Voters also can call (888) VOTE SMART to find out a candidate's stance on specific issues.

"Basically, either you ended up on our honor roll or you failed," Skjelstad said. "The whole idea behind this is to educate the voters on where candidates stand on the issues."

Some of the candidates who made it onto the honor roll are: GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenny Guinn and Democratic Senatorial candidate Harry Reid.

Some of the candidates who received failing grades are: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jan Laverty Jones and Republican senatorial candidate John Ensign.

"I don't believe we received one of the surveys to fill out," said Denise Cardinal, spokeswoman for the Jones' campaign. "If we did receive one, it was simply an oversight on our part in not returning it."

But Adelaide Elm, of Vote Smart, said the Jones campaign was contacted seven times by phone, once by fax and three times by letter during the past five weeks.

"We get literally hundreds of surveys," said Mike Slanker, Ensign's campaign manager.

He added the campaign does not fill them all out.

"The toughest candidates to get to return surveys are those who think they have safe seats. They don't want to do anything that they think will lose them votes," said Richard Kimball, executive director of Vote Smart.

The Nevada congressional candidates who were listed on the honor roll: James Burns, Libertarian, District 1; Don Chairez, Republican, District 1; Jess Howe, Independent American, District 1; and James Gibbons, District 2.

These State Assembly candidates were listed on the honor roll: Jeff Knight, Republican, District 1; Lynette McDonald, Democrat, District 2; Lewis Roseberry, Libertarian, District 3; Bob Beers, Republican, District 4; Chris Giunchigliani, Democrat, District 9; Mark Scarborough, Republican District 9; Bryan Henchik, Republican District 11; Ed Flores, Independent, District 12; Bill Newman, Democrat, District 13; Dennis Nolan, Republican, District 13; Ellen Koivisto, Democrat, District 14; Jim Forte, Republican, District 15; Florian Tschmelitsch, nominated by petition, District 15; Stefan Steel, Republican, District 16; Michael Thomas, Libertarian, District 16; Kelly Thomas, Democrat, District 16; Jerry Claborn, Democrat, District 19; Sheila Leslie, Democrat, District 27; Christopher Sewell, Republican, District 29; Gary Keller, Republican, District 30; Pati McClelland, Republican, District 31; Don Gustavson, Republican, District 32; John Carpenter, Republican, District 33; Del Haas, Republican, District 36; Greg Brower, Republican, District 37; Randi Thompson, Republican, District 37; Joseph Dini, Democrat, District 38; Larry Green, Republican, District 40; and David Parks, Democrat, District 41.

These State Senate candidates were listed on the honor roll: Mark Amodei, Republican, Capitol District; Kenneth Lucas, Libertarian, Clark District 1; Lou Toomin, Republican, Clark District 3; Jack Close, Republican, Clark District 7; Jerry Sims, Libertarian, Clark District 8; and Donald Forrester, Republican, Western Nevada District.