Alden, Ratigan will meet again

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

Henderson high-tech businessman Jim Ratigan pulled 29 percent of the vote Tuesday night in a three-way race for the Subdistict B seat on the Board of Regents, good enough to pair him up against incumbent Mark Alden in the general election in November.

Alden, a certified public accountant running for a second six-year term on the board that oversees the University and Community College System of Nevada, secured 10,072 votes, for 56 percent of the 18,128 votes cast.

Wallace Best, a retired professor from Boulder City, who raised $438 for his campaign, mustered just 16 percent of the vote, effectively ending his grass-roots walking campaign to stop the construction of the proposed state college at Henderson.

"The voters have shown they favor the changes we have made over the past six years," Alden said, adding that the key to his work for the district continues to be what he calls the AAA plan: access for students, accountability to the public and academic excellence.

Ratigan also claimed victory for the 5,216 votes cast in his favor and the chance to challenge Alden in the general.

"We're planning for an intense general election. I'm getting out there and walking it again tomorrow," Ratigan said. "I visited 2,500 homes before the primary, and I'm planning on visiting 10 times that many by the general."

Ratigan said he will be telling voters about his plans to establish strategic planning for the community colleges and universities in order to let each institution thrive at what it does best.

"Right now we're asking institutions to be everything for everybody," Ratigan said.

Best endorsed Alden late Tuesday night. But he also claimed a symbolic victory for his 2,840 votes.

"My primary objective in trying to stop Richard Moore from cannibalizing the future funding of community colleges in Boulder City and Henderson was achieved," Best said.

The proposed college, which drove debate through the weeks leading up to the primary, is far from sunk. But the recent request by Moore for $40 million in state money to build the first two campus buildings has been relegated to a third-tier priority for the Legislature. It will most likely have to get in line for funding behind the Community College of Southern Nevada and UNLV.

Subdistrict D, the second largest district in the state, represents portions of eastern Las Vegas and Henderson, Searchlight and Laughlin.

A fourth candidate, Juana Leia Jordan of Las Vegas, dropped out of the race in late May and has since joined Alden's campaign.

In the general election, incumbent Subdistrict A Regent David Phillips of Las Vegas faces Linda Howard.

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