Culinary, Hispanic community issue late endorsements

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2002 | 10:09 a.m.

As today's primary drew near, one of the most powerful voices in Las Vegas election history flexed its muscle alongside the group emerging as an influence.

The Culinary Union led the charge, issuing late endorsements in two key Assembly races for the challengers and announcing a recent push encouraging its largely Democratic members to switch parties in order to vote in a closely contested County Commission race for a moderate Republican.

The Hispanic community -- trying to prove this election year that redistricting was successful in creating Hispanic friendly seats -- took to the airwaves with a two-hour get-out-the-vote program, "Vota Latino."

"It is very important that you vote on Sept. 3 for our children, for our families and for our future," newspaper publisher Eddie Escobedo said, in Spanish, during the live program Saturday morning. "You have a voice and it must be heard."

Voter registration drives could help Hispanic voters number 70,000 this primary, and community leaders are hoping the radio pep rally will drum up support for candidates such as George Cantu in Assembly District 11, Moises Denis in Assembly 28 and Regent candidates Aldo Aguirre and Andres Ramirez.

Denis picked up an equally important ally in his bid to unseat six-term Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning in the majority Hispanic, majority Democratic North Las Vegas district.

Culinary political director Glen Arnodo announced endorsements of both Denis and Kelvin Atkinson, a Democrat challenging 14-term incumbent Bob Price in a different North Las Vegas district.

Democratic Party officials were quietly preparing for the likelihood that both Price and Chowning -- two committee chairs during the 2001 session -- could lose their primary races.

They were also carefully watching District 11 to see if Cantu could turn out the estimated 2,000 Hispanic voters in the district to help him unseat Doug Bache, another committee chairman from 2001, who has spent more than $60,000 for this primary against Cantu and Bob McCleary.

"I have never seen an election cycle where the outcomes were so up in the air this close to the primary," said Lindsey Jydstrup, a Democratic consultant who heads the Assembly Democratic Caucus.

Republicans had their eyes on close races of their own, with the party split in its support for candidates in the Clark County Commission District F race and in one Senate and one Assembly primary.

Mark James, a former state senator who entered the race on the last day to file for office, has outspent attorney Tim Cory 2-to-1 and is hoping to pull out of a contentious primary whose winner will likely cruise to victory in November.

Despite James' popularity as a state senator, Cory -- a former Democrat -- received the endorsement of the county GOP and is courting the conservative voters who turn out for primaries.

James has Culinary support, and with Arnodo announcing that before the voter registration deadline, union members in the district were encouraged to switch parties and vote for James.

Several Clark County commissioners privately told the Sun they expected Cory to squeak by in an upset.

Primaries for district attorney, Senate District 8 and Assembly District 2 also split Republican party faithful.

Abbi Silver mounted a last-minute newspaper ad campaign to announce her appointment to Attorney General John Ashcroft's national committee to study domestic violence.

Silver is fighting fellow deputy chief district attorney David Roger in the primary.

In Senate District 8 Assemblywoman Barbara Cegavske spent the long weekend with a final door-to-door push in the district trying to win support in her bid to outlast the strong campaign of conservative trial attorney Tom Christensen.

Assemblywoman Merle Berman hoped to eke out victory in a tightly matched GOP primary for the district including a portion of Summerlin. Garn Mabey, an obstetrician courting the Latter-day Saint vote, has picked up endorsements from Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and conservative groups such as Nevada Concerned Citizens.

Berman has mailed out prepaid phone cards and has focused her advertisements on support she has received from LDS politicians such as County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury.

Labor Day weekend made for a fairly quiet last-minute campaign push in the mail and on television as Monday's holiday cut out an important mail day and the long weekend kept many candidates with their families.

One reason may be that 58,037 people have already voted, leaving candidates to court what will likely be fewer than 50 percent of expected voters today.

Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said that although early voting totals were the highest in the short history of the program, he still did not anticipate total turnout topping 25 percent.