Political notebook: Kenny, James say no conspiracy

Erin Neff

Friday, Sept. 6, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

Conspiracy theories continue to swirl around the most unlikely of political bedfellows -- Erin Kenny and Mark James.

Two mailers sent on behalf of James' opponent, Tim Cory, questioned the ties between James and Kenny and suggested the two had cooked up a deal just before the May 20 deadline to file whereby Kenny would announce a bid for lieutenant governor at the same time James filed for the County Commission.

That move essentially shut out any serious Democratic candidates from seeking Kenny's seat and left the winner of the Republican primary the likely new commissioner.

But James and Kenny don't like to talk about the alleged deal, or about speculation that James might switch to the Democratic Party. The official statement from James' campaign consultant Jim Ferrence is: "The fact is that they've been friends for a long time. She didn't offer anything to the campaign and James didn't offer anything to her campaign."

Still, campaign season is no time to be official friends.

Kenny had just finished riling up fellow Democrats on primary night when she crossed town to congratulate James on his victory in the Republican primary.

When Kenny arrived to give James a big victory hug Tuesday night, James' campaign manager, Diana Paluch, immediately grabbed her candidate's arm and pulled him away from Kenny and a nearby photographer's lens.

Kenny went outside where moments later James emerged and knocked on her car window, and the two exchanged pleasantries.

Meanwhile across town, a top Democrat glanced at the television, saw a report of James' victory and said: "Damn, Culinary."

Without the Culinary Union's request that about 300 Democratic members in the commission district switch registration to Republican to vote for James, Cory -- a former Democrat -- probably would have won Tuesday.

Courting every vote

From the time-honored tradition of pandering are two great examples from the Democratic Party.

Congressional candidate Dario Herrera, trying anything and everything to win the 3rd Congressional District race, isn't playing any games with the Second Amendment, judging from a hard-to-miss bumper sticker.

The bright reddish-orange sticker features a shotgun with a scope and the words "Sportsmen for Dario Herrera." Herrera wants to make it clear that not all Democrats are just about gun control and that Republicans aren't the only ones behind the freedom to bear arms.

Herrera's County Commission colleague Kenny is shooting for a decidedly different vote in her lieutenant governor bid -- support from members of the Church of Latter-day Saints.

Kenny signed the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage pledge, which goes beyond the Question 2 initiative banning gay marriage. The pledge says that the candidate recognizes that various domestic partnerships, civil unions or reciprocal beneficiary relationships can only result in benefits through marriage or other inexpensive legal contracts.

But as a commissioner, Kenny placed on the agenda a discussion about benefits for domestic partners. How can she have it both ways?

She said she supports Question 2 and supports the "spirit of Question 2."

"Unfortunately, the way they had this particular pledge they were very vague and it was broadly written," Kenny said.

Kenny, a recent law school graduate, said she wasn't sure how the coalition was defining domestic partnerships, and she also said she didn't think support for Question 2 and support for benefits for domestic partners were mutually exclusive.

Campaigns wear on

Most voters are just now starting to pay attention to the elections that candidates have already been working on 'round the clock for months.

A few cases of weariness began showing Wednesday at an attorney general's debate when Republican Brian Sandoval and Democrat John Hunt sat at the same luncheon table comparing swings through Winnemucca, Lovelock and Goldfield.

"We had a joke on our rural tour," Sandoval said of the GOP ticket's campaign. "By the end, I was giving (Treasurer) Brian Krolicki's speech."

When Hunt was later called to the podium as lunch was served, he had no qualms about missing the food.

"I've eaten so much chicken lately I feel like I have feathers," Hunt said. "We went out to dinner the other night and I even ordered chicken."

For the record