Candidates represent different philosophies

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Merritt Ike Yochum

William Billy Oswald

Lorraine Hunt

On the surface the race for lieutenant governor appears to be between a soccer mom juggling family with politics and a former lounge singer trying to keep Nevada on the world's stage.

But Erin Kenny and Lorraine Hunt are also perfect pitchwomen for their party's philosophies.

For Kenny, a lifelong Democrat, that means collective bargaining for state employees, increasing taxes to pay for programs and promoting public power.

"I'm never afraid to put my ideas on the table," Kenny said. "We are so woefully behind in this state in education and health care and the business climate that we need someone who is very focused on the problems."

Hunt, a businesswoman Republican, thinks government should be run like the private sector, believes taxes should hold the line and that the proposed purchase of the Nevada Power Co. requires serious analysis.

"I've been using those philosophies to guide me in leading this state's economic development and tourism for the past four years," Hunt said. "Those who say the sky is falling don't see how much we've accomplished."

Although Hunt has the office to use as a bully pulpit for those ideas, Kenny can -- and is -- describing hers in television ads thanks to her $1 million-plus campaign budget.

Polls conducted several weeks ago give Hunt a double-digit lead in the race, and thanks to the coattails of a popular governor facing little opposition, many consider the race Hunt's to lose.

"She's been there for this state and served without any problems as my acting governor," Gov. Kenny Guinn said. "I think voters will reward her hard work."

But Kenny has been down before and pulled out surprise victories for the Assembly in a Republican district and twice for county commissioner when she wasn't supposed to win.

"She may have filed at the last minute, but she is right on the issues," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The issues are going to drive this election."

When Hunt's and Kenny's beliefs are put squarely into the issues of taxation, economic development, education and leadership, the two women don't see eye to eye.

Both said they would prefer to wait until the Nevada Task Force on Tax Policy issues its recommendations next month before commenting on specific proposals, but Kenny is more inclined to raise taxes than Hunt.

"A gross receipts tax, to me, would be a gross mistake," Hunt said of the proposed one-quarter of one percent tax on business earnings greater than $350,000.

Instead, she said, the state needs to receive a bigger percentage of the property tax. Hunt said gaming taxes should not be raised, but that the needed revenue to get the state out the deficit could also come from incremental increases in the sales tax.

When asked which of the proposed taxes she would support, Kenny smiles and says: "You know I'm a Democrat."

She said any solution must "fix the problem," and she thinks cigarette and liquor taxes, the gross receipts business tax, property tax and corporate filing fees should all be part of the solution. Kenny thinks gaming taxes should be raised.

"We don't just have a shortfall, we have a deficit," Kenny said.

One way both women agree that Nevada can diversify its economy is by encouraging alternative energies to develop in the state and courting non-gaming businesses.

But both have a different idea on how that should occur.

Hunt said raising taxes would kill business development efforts and that the state should broaden its target for businesses to include international companies.

"When I was in China, I was on a television show there and I was told that 900 million people were watching," Hunt said. "My God, there's our market for tourists and for businesses."

Kenny said the state needs to first improve K-12 education by raising revenue for starting teacher's salaries and programs and then needs to improve higher education by enticing companies to chair endowments in specific areas like science and technology.

"The number one thing an employer is looking for is quality education," Kenny said. "If major corporations get behind us and partner with us on science and technology centers, for example, we can get them to come."

Both women say they have the leadership skills to step in for the governor if needed. But Hunt can point to the weeks she has served as acting governor, including time last month when Guinn had prostate cancer surgery, as proof.

"I think I have proven myself," Hunt said. "Gov. Guinn doesn't have to worry about taking time off or going out of state with me as lieutenant governor."

Kenny bristles at the suggestion that a Democrat would "take over or change policy" when the Republican incumbent is out of state.

"The governor and I have worked on a number of different problems together, including air quality management, medical malpractice and now the Amber Alert system," Kenny said. "He and I have worked in the past on a handshake and we don't overstate our roles."

Hunt does it her way

On Sept. 11, 2001, when Nevada Highway Patrol officers called Hunt to tell her she was about to be taken to an undisclosed location, the former lounge singer had 10 minutes to figure out what to pack.

"You should have seen the size of the bag," Hunt jokes.

Although Hunt does have vast business experience and a stint on the county commission, she is still always on stage.

Whether reigning over karaoke at her Bootlegger restaurant on weekends or stumping for economic development in Nevada on Chinese television, Hunt is more in her element behind a microphone.

If there were theme music for her four years in the lieutenant governor's office and her current re-election campaign it would be from fellow Italian Frank Sinatra.

"This is an executive position," Hunt said, before breaking into song. "You know if people ask, I'll tell them 'I did it myyyyyy waaaaaay.' "

Hunt was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., as the only child of Maria and Albert Perry. She moved to Las Vegas in 1943 after her parents decided the city's name sounded "more Italian" than other options in California.

Her family was always in the restaurant business, opening the original Venetian eatery in 1955 and joining with the Ruvo family to run a pizzeria on Fremont Street.

Hunt, who attended Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles, worked under stage name Lauri Perry on the Strip in a variety of vocal groups, some of which performed between sets of Fats Domino and Elvis Presley.

She saved her performance money and bought land "way out" on Tropicana and Eastern avenues. And when her family developed the original Bootlegger on the property, she and husband Charles "Blackie" Hunt had to delay their "poor man's Sonny and Cher act."

"I've been in business ever since," she said.

Tenants in her strip mall began decrying government bureaucracy and Hunt led the small business crusades of the early 1980s. Before she knew it she was chairman-elect of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, president of the Nevada Restaurant Association and director of the Nevada Hotel-Motel Association.

In 1994 she ran for county commission in a Democratic district nobody thought she could win. Then in 1998 she ran for lieutenant governor, surprising some in the GOP primary and beating Democrat Rose McKinney-James.

"So here I am and I work like a dog for this state," Hunt said. "I have a CEO mentality and that's what this state needs in this office."

Kenny's dream

On Nov. 22, 1963, Kenny realized how her family of Macedonian immigrants found freedom in America after fleeing an oppressive Communist government in Yugoslavia.

"The day John F. Kennedy died, I was 4 years old and it was the day I saw my mother and father, my grandparents and aunts and uncles cry for the nation's loss," Kenny said. "Ever since, freedom has been a powerful influence in my life."

Kenny was born in Pasadena, Calif., but grew up in Woodale, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, spending much time at her grandfather's in-house shoe shop. Her mother was a public school teacher and president of her teacher's union and her father was a draftsman for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.

"My mother was an active Democrat and every weekend we went somewhere to help on a campaign," Kenny said. "When I was 7 I would bend the paperclips for door hangers."

Kenny graduated from the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana with a degree in speech communications that probably helped fuel the intensity with which she whips up supporters on the stump.

She married John Kenny, a chiropractor, and after the birth of their first two children, the family moved out West, settling in Las Vegas when Erin Kenny had some luck at a slot machine and decided she liked the town.

Initially Kenny worked the graveyard shift as a waitress at the Imperial Palace, and later took over a small public relations firm before deciding to run for the state Assembly in 1992.

"I never knew I was the Democrats' sacrificial lamb," Kenny said. "No one explained it to me that I was just a warm body in the race. I just assumed I was going to win."

Two years later she upset Clark County Commissioner Don Schlesinger and won re-election to the commission in 1998. As a commissioner she often takes on issues that cause friction on the board, tick off her constituents and divide the community. "People know who I am," she says.

She is perhaps better remembered for the losses, including a defeat at the ballot of her children's hospital proposal and a union-backed bid to block Wal-Mart from opening new stores. Kenny also wanted to ban hand-held cell phone use while driving.

In the meantime she has juggled raising five kids -- all of whom attend the Meadows School -- with going to law school, her commission work and her political future.

She graduated from the Boyd School of Law at UNLV in May and failed in her first try to pass Nevada's bar exam.

Kenny downplays her political future and whether she views the lieutenant governor's race as "stepping stone."

"I'm just running for this office," she said, the same thing she said of her commission seat seven days before filing for statewide office in May.

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