ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 19

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 1:27 a.m.

Two Democrats, each claiming to fight for the rights of senior citizens, will square off in Assembly District 19.

Bradley Smith, a 39-year-old public relations professional, said that if elected, he will publish information regularly outlining the taxes collected and those spent by the district and on construction projects and crime statistics.

He has drawn on his experience in public relations as a model for how he says he would distribute information to the public.

Smith would also push for a cut in property taxes for senior citizens. The cuts would reduce the number of seniors living in poverty, he said. He has also vowed to seek out and punish white collar criminals who prey on senior citizens.

Smith will face three-term incumbent Assemblyman Jerry Claborn, a 65-year-old retired operating engineer who is also running on a platform of protecting his district's senior citizens. Claborn, a former 24-year International Union of Operating Engineers representative, has vowed to address the area's nursing shortage and medical-malpractice insurance crisis.

Claborn has pressed for a cap to property taxes and said he will continue to do so.

He is chairman of the Dollars Against Diabetes Day and is co-founder of the Nevada Heavy Highway Committee.

Claborn was first elected in 1999.

Because there are no candidates from other parties, the two Democrats are facing each other for the Assembly seat.