AG candidate gets backing of union

Erin Neff

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 | 11:30 a.m.

Democrat John Hunt got a huge boost in his campaign to be the state's next attorney general on Tuesday, when he won a key labor endorsement.

Hunt, a Las Vegas attorney challenging Republican Brian Sandoval, picked up the support of the Nevada AFL-CIO during a convention in Las Vegas of the labor union's Committee Political Education.

The endorsement would generally not be a surprise for a Democrat in a state race, but Hunt had bucked heads with organized labor last year when he represented opponents of a bill that would have made it easier for dentists to move to Nevada by eliminating a clinical exam.

With the AFL-CIO's backing, Hunt will likely get additional labor support -- a key element to winning the get-out-the-vote drive in close elections.

The race to replace Democrat Frankie Sue Del Papa, who is stepping down, is close, with two separate polls -- one in Clark County and one statewide -- giving Sandoval a 4 percentage point edge.

Sandoval, the former chairman of the Gaming Control Board, is well known in his home base of Reno and is expected to handily win Northern and rural Nevada.

But with Clark County having a Democratic voter registration edge, it is possible for a candidate to win a statewide election by winning Clark County alone, provided the margin of victory is by about 20,000 votes.

Danny Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said Hunt was the better candidate to stick up for working families based on his commitment to fight Yucca Mountain, go after the St. Paul Cos. for its role in the medical malpractice crisis and to protect consumers from massive Nevada Power rate increases.

Hunt said the endorsement "means everything for my campaign."

"This give me terrific momentum," Hunt said.