Effects of redistricting felt in races

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

More than a year ago the men and women who huddled around maps in the middle of a warm Carson City night thought that every line drawn would impact an election.

And whether redistricting meant opening up a district to a newcomer, forcing an incumbent to move or giving someone a reason to run, the decennial process that redrew the state's lines was front and center during Tuesday's primary.

"Reapportionment took a number of people and essentially made them start over," Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said. "Half of the success for incumbents is their name ID, and when the district changes, that can disappear."

Many incumbents saw their districts redrawn, cutting out bases of support as the legislative map-makers tried to work in population shifts along with politics.

Incumbents Bob Price and Doug Bache, both Democrats, lost Tuesday night running in vastly changed districts. Assemblywoman Merle Berman, who also lost core constituents in redistricting, also lost in the primary election.

The redistricting process led to such a sour taste for Assembly Republicans that three fled seeking the house in which they could be part of the ruling party.

But when it came to the emergence of Hispanics through the reapportionment process, in which district were drawn with the idea of giving Hispanic voters a bigger say and thus a potential seat, the power of incumbency still proved a stronger factor.

Assembly candidate David Griego nervously eyed the early voting returns in his District 5 race with Valerie Weber hoping Hispanics turned out to vote on Tuesday and would stem the tide of numbers rolling in for Weber.

It never did for him or for more than a dozen other highly touted Hispanic candidates.

Tony Sanchez, president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, wasn't cheered by the revelry around him Tuesday night at Democratic Party headquarters.

"We have 27 candidates and none of them are doing anything," he said, referring largely to the court, Assembly, education and county seats. "This is just totally disappointing."

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning pulled out a 53 percent to 47 percent victory over Hispanic Moises Denis in a district with 65 percent Hispanic registration.

Chowning was only even running there because she had been drawn into Doug Bache's District 11 during the process, and decided not to run against a fellow Democratic committee chairman in a primary.

She was smart to get out of that district as Bache lost by 11 votes to Bob McCleary in a 3-way primary.

Price was also drawn into a competitive primary against fellow incumbent and Democratic committee chairman Morse Arberry Jr., but he too, opted to move.

Price instead found himself in such a vastly changed district that an aggressive campaign from Kelvin Atkinson didn't even make it close.

Up north, redistricting designed to put a fringe Republican out of office backfired as attorney Greg Brower lost to Sharron Angle, who campaigned feverishly and won some votes through her television show.

When Democrats finished the touches on redistricting they crowed about how tough they would make things for certain Republicans.

But Republicans Dennis Nolan, Sandra Tiffany and Barbara Cegavske all saw better opportunities -- and won primaries -- for Senate seats vacated by Bill O'Donnell, Jon Porter and Mark James respectively.

Porter is now running for Congress, in part because of the way the GOP helped to draw Nevada's new congressional seat.

Open seats, particularly in Clark County, have opened the political doors to some newcomers this year -- most notably in District 37 where some pavement pounding by Francis Allen got her nine more votes than recent Reno transplant Earlene Forsythe, who spent about $300 per vote.

Perhaps the biggest loser of the night, and now it seems of redistricting, are Hispanics. Although Hispanic candidates ran for 27 seats in Clark County, none of the highly touted crop of newcomers was able to make much noise.

Party politics played a smaller role Tuesday as a conservative faction within the Republican party did make some noise.

Assembly woman Merle Berman lost a tough race to Dr. Garn Mabey, a Mormon touting family values and winning support from U.S. Sen. John Ensign.

The more conservative candidate also won in Republican primaries for Assembly District 13 as Chad Christensen handily beat Mark Warden despite news of his bankruptcy filing just prior to the election and in Assembly 5, which had become something of a referendum on Clark County GOP Chairman Steve Wark.

David Griego said he wasn't running so much against Valerie Weber as he was against Wark, who some suggest is leading the county party too far to the religious right at the expense of moderate voices.

Wark maintains that the party "is what it is" and says the candidates who worked the hardest won.

Weber, who had Wark's support, trounced Griego. But Wark's touted Republican candidate Tom Christensen lost by 12 percentage points to the slightly-more moderate Cegavske in Senate District 8.

Redistricting's influence will only increase during the general election when the contests some of those huddled Democrats and Republicans dreamed of in 2001 finally play out off of the paper.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, was already hyping what the process could mean for her party as it tries to overcome a 12-9 GOP advantage in the Senate.

Her thoughts run like this. Nolan wouldn't have run for Senate if his Assembly seat still had a cushy GOP voter margin. If Nolan doesn't run, Richard Bunker likely wins the Senate 9 race and poses an almost insurmountable challenge to Democrat Terry Lamuraglia.

As it played out, however, Titus now sees Senate 9 as a real potential pick-up for her party and her goal to become majority leader.

"Terry's been working hard and he has the money and the support to win that seat," Titus said.