ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 20

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

Republican incumbent Joe Hardy will face a challenger from his own party in Assembly District 20.

Travis Chandler, a chemist-turned-patent lawyer, is running to unseat Hardy, saying recent tax increases threaten to harm people living on fixed incomes. Chandler, 50, proposes to limit the property tax to 1 percent of a home's taxable value and limit yearly increases to keep pace with the consumer price index.

Chandler opposes legislation proposed by Clark County Assessor Mark Schofield that would limit property tax increases to 6 percent a year, a move Chandler says is supported by Hardy. He also wants to limit growth of the state budget to the annual growth of the state's population.

Chandler earned his law degree from the UNLV's Boyd School of Law in 2002 after 14 years as the chief chemist of a chemical research and development company. An 18-year Nevada resident living in Boulder City, he holds a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Arizona.

Hardy, a Boulder City doctor, is running for re-election on a four-tier platform that emphasizes children's issues, including a push for measures to protect children from inhaling second-hand smoke.

Hardy, 55, is the former mayor pro-tempore and has served on the city's drug abuse council and is a member of the Clark County Health District. He supports Question 3, the "Keep Our Doctors in Nevada" initiative that would limit damages patients can seek from negligent doctors.

Hardy also supports changes to limit increases in the state's property taxes and has stresses continued performance audits for state agencies. A former Air Force major, Hardy is a member of the Nevada Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians and is an associate clinical professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

He has served one term in the Assembly.

Because there are no candidates from other parties, the two Republicans are facing each other in the general election.