Assembly District 11

Molly Ball

Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004 | 2:37 a.m.

The Assembly District 11 Democratic primary is likely to give you a feeling of deja vu: the same candidates who ran two years ago are going at it again.

But this time, the challenger is the incumbent and the incumbent is the challenger. In 2002, Bob McCleary, 43, unseated six-term incumbent Douglas Bache, 52, by the slender margin of 11 votes.

Now Bache is trying to win back the seat he held for 12 years. The primary is likely to decide the election in this heavily Democratic North Las Vegas district, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 3 to 1.

The primary winner will face token opposition in the general election from 27-year-old Republican David Adams, who also ran two years ago, receiving 32 percent of the vote to McCleary's 68 percent.

McCleary, who works for an auto-body repair shop, calls himself a champion of the working class and says education is his priority as a legislator.

"I grew up on the hard streets of Las Vegas and did not have the opportunity to obtain a higher education," he wrote in a Sun questionnaire. "I know what it's like to struggle to pay the bills on a low-paying job."

During the 2003 session, McCleary served on five Assembly committees: Government Affairs; Education; Elections, Procedures, and Ethics; Natural Resources; and Constitutional Amendments, of which he was vice chairman.

McCleary attended Valley High School.

Bache, a middle-school math teacher, highlighted four issues as his campaign platform: health care, for which he proposes a consolidated state agency to regulate and provide services; energy costs, which he says could be reduced by increasing the use of solar energy; payday loan establishments, which he says charge exorbitant interest; and school overcrowding.

"I would support legislation refocusing the school districts into reducing class sizes in order to provide a quality education," Bache promised.

During his six Assembly terms, Bache chaired the Government Affairs Committee four times and the Select Committee on Energy twice.

Bache holds a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University.