Columnist Ruthe Deskin: No true losers in elections

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, Oct. 24, 2002 | 8:24 a.m.

I have said it before, and I say it again.

When the votes are finally tabulated, my congratulations go to the winners.

My compliments, however, go to the losers.

Anyone who voluntarily takes on the task of running for public office earns my respect.

While many of us sit back and criticize, others have the courage and stamina to back their convictions with a treacherous trek down the road of politics.

It's not easy to subject oneself to the harsh airing of one's personal life, the drudgery of a political campaign, walking precincts and knocking on doors, asking for money and working through the inevitable frustrations and disappointments that often beset the candidates' efforts to be elected. Let the winners enjoy the victories.

Let the losers know we appreciate that they gave us a choice.

A bit of election trivia:

According to the publication The Political History of Nevada, the 1975 Nevada Legislature approved a bill that gives voters the option of voting for "none of these candidates" for all public offices elected statewide.

This option appears on both primary and general-election ballots for the offices of U.S. president and vice president, U.S. senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, state controller and justices of the Supreme Court.

There have been several instances where "none of these candidates" received the most votes. However, the law stipulates that the actual candidate receiving the most votes is elected or nominated, regardless of the number of votes cast for "none of these candidates."

Some cynics might claim that "none" is better than someone.

Mark Twain once wrote: "Politics has got so expensive that it takes a lot of money to get beat with."

It was a tossup for Las Vegas sports fans. The first game of the World Series and the UNLV-BYU football game were on at the same time. When I turned to the football game expecting to see just how disastrous it would be for the Rebels, lo and behold they were ahead by three points, a lead they never relinquished.

It was a good shot in the arm for coach John Robinson, UNLV players and fans to see the Rebels hand BYU a decisive defeat. The defense was outstanding and much-maligned quarterback Jason Thomas redeemed himself with a fine performance.

To all fans who have been crying doomsday, remember, it's not over until the fat lady sings.

The serial sniper story has our attention these days, so when space shuttle Atlantis returned to earth after a 4.5-million mile voyage to make major repairs on the space station, it hardly made a ripple in the day's news.

Journeys into space and the return of space vehicles once dominated the news. What was a remarkable achievement years back is considered routine today.

The awesome accomplishments of our astronauts should not be relegated to the back pages, or not even acknowledged by major news sources.