Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 | 11:23 a.m.
The four Democrats running for governor don't give themselves any real chance of beating incumbent Kenny Guinn.
But each thinks better leadership is possible in his or her hands.
State Sen. Joe Neal, 67, is the best known of the four in Southern Nevada thanks to being the longest-serving senator in the state's history.
He carefully removes his signature white cowboy hat to sit down to a late-morning breakfast at H&H Barbecue, where busboys and customers greet him with: "Good morning, senator" or "Give 'em hell, Joe."
For Neal, a true populist who has made a recent career out of proposing gaming tax increases, the race isn't about him, his three primary opponents or the incumbent governor.
"I'm not running against Kenny Guinn," Neal said. "I'm running against gaming. But they control the castle, and you can't get to the king until you go through the palace guards."
Neal supports raising the gaming tax from its current 6.75 to 10.25 percent, he said, to pay for health care, transportation and educational needs.
"This base population cannot continue to pay for the services for the 30 million tourists who come here," Neal said.
Neal, a widower with four children, is an Air Force veteran and retired Nevada Test Site worker who has lived in and represented North Las Vegas for three decades. He has a bachelor's degree in political science and history from Southern University.
Over the past two decades, Neal said, most of the things he has warned might occur -- have, with bad results.
In 1981, Neal was one of just two who opposed a tax shift that moved the state away from property taxes, arguing at the time the sales tax was insufficient to meet future needs.
"I've been right on target with a lot of things," Neal said. "I don't think that I was elected to go up to the Legislature to go along to get along."
Neal has long supported public power, objecting last session to the legislation that allowed Nevada Power to seek its record rate hike. Early this year Neal pinned the medical malpractice crisis on St. Pauls Co., the insurance company that left the market.
"It worries me sometimes when I arrive at these thoughts and I'm alone out there," Neal said. "Sometimes I say to myself, 'Am I wrong to be thinking this way?' But I usually end up getting support."
He did not get much support in his 1998 bid for governor, losing badly to then-Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones in the Democratic primary.
Neal bucks against the Democratic Party's position on Yucca Mountain, not because he supports the project (which he doesn't), but because he has long advocated negotiating for benefits.
This year Neal threw his support to Republican Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald's congressional campaign, he says, because she is a fellow black Catholic who helped West Las Vegas' St. James build a new church.
"I told her I supported her, not her party," Neal said.
But the Democratic Party was not pleased and has all but endorsed Guinn, refusing to even mention Neal in press releases about candidates.
"I'm troubled by that due to the fact that they seem to be accepting gaming's position," Neal said. "I've basically stayed with the party ideals in terms of legislation I've supported, and for them to just come out and reject me out of hand shows me we don't have a Democratic Party in this state, we have a gaming party."
Dan Meyer
Dan Meyer, 43, a slot route operator in Reno, isn't interested in taxing gaming, especially the Northern Nevada casinos. He does support a small business tax, but wants any proposal to seriously consider the current economy.
"I'm not a politician and my candidacy is just like one big letter to the editor," Meyer said. "I am just tired of everyone calling for tax increases, we're in a recession now and we can't afford any more taxes."
Meyer, a conservative Democrat who voted for Guinn in 1998, said he thinks the governor is too tied to his campaign contributors to act freely.
"He's got too many strings pulling him," Meyer said. "I think he's too passive and too restricted to do what he wants to do."
For the past 20 years, Meyer has owned several small businesses, including a deli and two convenience stores. As a result of that experience, he said he believed government needed to have less control over businesses and that additional tax breaks, such as solar power metering for businesses, should be created.
He is married with two young children and stresses the need to return students to a "back to basics" education. One of his proposals would include waiving property taxes for seniors who volunteer in schools.
Meyer attended the University of Nevada, Reno for five years, but did not graduate.
"Do I have any grand illusions of winning?" he asks. "I don't even want to put signs up. I'm only spending $300, so whoever can get my message, will."
Christopher Petrella
Christopher Petrella, 35, is an interactive television developer from Las Vegas who entered the race when his then nine-month pregnant wife lost her doctor to the medical malpractice crisis.
Since that time, Guinn convened the Legislature and a reform measure was approved, but Petrella still thinks patients are being left out of the loop.
"I want to bring better jobs and diversified industry to all of Nevada," Petrella said. "I plan to use the office of governor to actively seek out companies to bring higher-paying jobs ... and by having better jobs, we can then concentrate on improving schools and providing health care for all Nevadans."
Petrella was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and said he served in the U.S. Army. "I worked in intelligence," Petrella said. "I'd tell you more but I'd have to kill you."
He ran for sheriff in 1994, advocating a security surcharge for airline passengers "kind of like what they did after 9-11," he said.
Petrella said Neal is "a one-trick pony with broken record rhetoric."
"He doesn't have a strong base in Nevada for raising the gaming tax," Petrella said.
Petrella, a high school graduate, proposes lowering the gaming tax in exchange for the industry's charitable donations to schools and health care programs.
Barbara Scott
Barbara Scott, 47, is a former topless Glitter Gulch dancer who now lives in Gardnerville and focuses all of her time on her second race for governor.
Running a truly grass-roots campaign -- speaking at home dinners and helping people restore disconnected utilities -- Scott said she has "found little cracks in the system that need someone to work on them."
Scott said she thinks the "novelty" of her past as a topless dancer has worn off after her unsuccessful 1998 bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
"People seem to listen to me more this time around," said Scott, who attended Southern Connecticut State College and hasCertified Public Accountant certification.
Scott, a mother of three grown children and four grandchildren, danced for seven years at the Fremont Street club, and said she is using savings from her work there to run the campaign.
"Instead of spending $1,000 to put my picture on a billboard, I'm just traveling around to different groups and meetings and trying to help people," Scott said.
Scott disputes the widely-held notion that Neal will win the Democratic primary.
"I'm not expecting to win, but I'm not so sure that he's going to get more than 50 percent of the vote," Scott said. "He wants to raise gaming taxes and that's just wrong to target the main industry. As governor, you sit down and negotiate."
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