Startin, Dempsey challenge for seat

Erin Neff

Monday, Oct. 14, 2002 | 9:17 a.m.

W. Lane Startin

But Startin, a 29-year-old software analyst from Las Vegas, doesn't think he can play spoiler to Berkley's re-election campaign.

"A good portion of my votes will come from people who haven't voted before," Startin said. "Not from Democrats."

If Startin gets 5 percent, he said, it would be "outstanding."

Steven "Capt. Truth" Dempsey is also running for the 1st Congressional District, more to discuss the issues of the constitutionally based Independent American Party than to pull votes away from Republican Lynette Boggs McDonald, he said.

Dempsey, who doesn't want to come clean about his age or occupation, says government is dirty.

"I want to discuss the truth about issues," Dempsey said. "People need to know what's really going on."

Dempsey said he is about 50, although he has "no independent recollection of the day I was born and can't trust the people who told me my birthday, because they also told me about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy."

He said he works as a paralegal for himself and dabbles in lymphology, which he describes as a way to treat illness without chemicals or medicine.