State Supreme Court

Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 | 9:08 a.m.

Only one of two state Supreme Court races this year is challenged.

Former District Judge and congressional candidate Don Chairez is running against Chief Supreme Court Justice Bill Maupin for Seat B.

Justice Mark Gibbons is running unopposed for Seat D.

Chairez stepped down from the bench in 1998 to challenge Shelley Berkley as the Republican candidate for the 1st Congressional District. He lost in a hard-fought campaign and announced his intention to run for district attorney this year. However, an opinion from the attorney general's office held that, because he was elected to the judgeship in 1996, a term that ends this year, he was not eligible to run for partisan office.

Now a lawyer and legal analyst for Channel 13, Chairez says a lesson can be learned from the state's fight against a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain: "When you feel the political process has not been fair, our last chance for fairness is in the courts.

Maupin, a District Court judge from 1993 to 1997, when he joined the Supreme Court, says he wants to continue with innovative case management to reduce the court's backlog.

He said he also wants "to improve access to justice and quality of justice in Nevada for all."