Jeffrey Libby

Wed, Sep 4, 2002 (9:33 a.m.)

Republican Sandra Tiffany says what sounds to Democrat John Hawk like homeowners flip-flopping on issues is actually an unofficial state song with roots running back to the 1970s.

Hawk says if they're still singing it, what good is all of Tiffany's experience?

After convincing wins in their respective primaries, Hawk and Tiffany on Tuesday turned to the partisan fight for state Senate District 5, a seat vacated by congressional candidate Jon Porter and one of two seats Democrats say they can take to win a majority in the Senate.

Republicans hold a 4,000-voter advantage in the district, but 17 percent of the 92,270 active registered voters are either non-partisan or belong to other political parties. Tiffany and Hawk say they have been reaching out to the swing voters all along.

As a five-term assemblywoman, Tiffany has formidable name recognition. It sent fellow Republican Bob Wong, 61, out of politics for good, Wong said, back to home improvement projects and hot rods.

Wong won 2,892 votes in unofficial results, or 27 percent of the vote, to Tiffany's 7,932 votes, 73 percent.

As an Asian-American, Wong said, "I probably could have done better as a Democrat, but I'm a Republican down to my bones."

In the month leading up to the general election, Tiffany said she'll focus on past successes, including her work on a legislative tax subcommittee in 2001 that brought $4.4 million home to Henderson, her work bringing Interstate 215 to Henderson and her help getting a Department of Motor Vehicles station to open in Green Valley.

Tiffany, 53, will continue her efforts to break up the Clark County School District.

"I want to make sure we have community-based schools," she said.

Hawk talked more of principles, of his ability to build consensus and to follow through on the need for better education and health care. Hawk, 28, is midway through his first term of elected office on the state Board of Education. He is a six-year resident of Henderson.

Campaigning door-to-door, Hawk said he'd never seen a community flip-flop so much between issues, going from a focus on electric power to Yucca Mountain to health care, and more recently, returning to electric power issues. "Leadership is what I strive for, what I'm hungry for, to help people," Hawk said.

Hawk won 5,074 votes, 61 percent of the vote.

His Democratic challenger, newcomer Sharon Gobel, won 3,268 votes for 39 percent.

"Frankly, I'm very excited," Gobel, 22, said, adding that her vote results were especially good considering Hawk was backed by the Democratic Party and two unions and had raised significantly more money than she did.

Tiffany has also been backed by her party. But in each of her five Assembly campaigns, as with this Senate race, she runs her own campaign, she said.

On the campaign trail, she said she has seen a consistent theme, not the flip-flopping described by Hawk.

"Health care is not new," she said. "Education is not new. Yucca Mountain is not new."

Hawk dismissed the idea that experience was by definition an advantage.

"These people talk about experience. Experience of doing what?" he said.

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