Third-party hopefuls offer options

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 11:22 a.m.

Jerry Norton

Dick Geyer

David Holmgren

But Dick Geyer, David Holmgren, Charles Laws and Jerry Norton still want voters to have an option.

Geyer, a Las Vegas Libertarian, thinks Gov. Kenny Guinn has initiated programs that are a waste of time. Most notably, he wants to get rid of the Millennium Scholarship program.

"That was created with money from the tobacco settlements, and I think it should go to fund other education programs because the scholarship isn't working," said Geyer, a member of the Metro Police Civilian Review Board. "About 30 to 40 percent of the kids who get the scholarships drop out anyway."

Geyer opposes tax increases and is against any federal control of land in Nevada.

Holmgren, an Independent American candidate from Hawthorne, decided to run when the party asked him to be one of its 50 candidates statewide.

"I'm really concerned about the real issues here in Nevada," said Holmgren, chairman of the Nevada Livestock Association."Those are issues like gun control, property rights, water rights and grazing rights, mining, protection of marriage and stopping these cattle impoundments."

Holmgren said he also supports lower taxes, creation of alternative energy and returning government to constitutional practices.

Laws, a Green candidate and retired environmental engineer from Reno, said he thinks Guinn has tried to do good work but said that all major party candidates fall victim to political pressures.

"I would initiate more internal respect for state employees," Laws said. "Performance evaluations should be done to refine the system, not to punish people."

Laws has run for office before, vying for Congress in Nevada in 2000 and in Massachusetts in 1995. He wants to end production of nuclear waste and protect water.

Norton, an Independent candidate from Las Vegas, did not respond to written requests for information and left no phone number or e-mail address with county elections officials when he filed the $300 to run for governor.