Kaplan weighs call for recount

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004 | 11:21 a.m.

Assembly candidate Kirk Kaplan, who lost by 244 votes to incumbent Valerie Weber in Tuesday's general election, met Wednesday with consultants to decide whether to demand a recount in the hotly contested District 5 race.

Kaplan, a Democrat, finished the race with 8,660 votes to Weber's 8,904, losing with a narrow 49.3 percent. He confirmed he met privately Wednesday afternoon with a group of consultants for the Democratic Party, but would not specify the topic of conversation.

The group was still weighing its options this morning but will likely not make a decision before next week, he said.

If he opts to demand a recount, Kaplan, 41, would have to wait until Nov. 22 -- when the state Supreme Court is expected to release the final outcome of the election -- to file his request for a recount, Steve George, a spokesman for Secretary of State Dean Heller, said.

Kaplan will then have three working days, which because of the Thanksgiving holdiay pushes the date back to Nov. 30, to submit his request, George said.

Weber, when told of the possible recount, said she was surprised.

She had not been contacted by her opponent since the election, Weber said.

"I want the will of the people of our district to be what prevails," she said. "I look at this as a temporary distraction. We need to get on with the people's business."

Jon Summers, a spokesman for the Nevada Democratic Party, said no other Democratic candidates had begun planning for a recount. The party won three seats in the state Assembly, expanding its lead to a 26-16 majority.

Erin Russell, executive director of the Republican Legislative Caucus, was unavailable for comment this morning.

Both Kaplan and Weber, a Republican, had said they expected a close race. Weber, 49, came under attack last month by Legislative Watch, a third-party group funded largely by the gaming industry. The organization put her on their so-called "Mean Fifteen" legislators list for blocking efforts to increase taxes and for stalling a gaming industry-backed plan to create a gross-receipts tax on business revenue.

Kaplan said the tight race had helped him establish name recognition that, if he does not pursue a recount, will help him go after other positions within the Democratic Party.

"The positive thing is that my name is known," he said. "I have a very good sense of character and we're going to make sure we benefit from that. The state of Nevada needs people like me."

Weber had said the group's mailing campaign prevented her from establishing a clear lead in the race.

Both sides said they had braced themselves for a close race, which late Tuesday night had Weber leading with a 16-vote margin.

"Because of the demographics (of the district) I knew it would would be closer than it was last time," Weber said.

District 5 had a Democratic advantage going into the election. It is home to 9,065 Democrats, 8,910 Republicans and 3,416 who identified themselves as unaffiliated.

The Democrats' advantage also grew during the summer from about 10 people to hundreds by Sept. 21.