ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 3

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 1:22 a.m.

Two people are challenging Assembly District 3's Democratic incumbent Peggy Pierce, a community liaison for the Culinary Union.

She faces Republican Brian Packer and Independent American Clint Barker as she tries for a second term in a district that has about 2,400 more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Pierce is running on a platform seeking adequate funding for schools, better water conservation and increased, affordable health care options.

Pierce, who served on the Air Quality Hearing Board and the Air Quality Forum, said she has been a resident for 16 years and politically active, particularly in the conservation movement.

In the last Legislature, Pierce, 50, was a member of the Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee as well as committees on government affairs, taxation and health and human services.

Barker, 35, is a stage technician and has served as chapter leader of the John Birch Society and athletic director for the Highland Games in Las Vegas.

He wrote in a Sun questionnaire that his main goal is to stop a state mental hospital from being built. The hospital is scheduled for construction near the Jones-Oakey intersection.

He said he also wants to stop new taxes.

Packer did not return a Sun questionnaire.

However, in a previous interview with the Sun, he said he supported the Republican Contract With Nevada.

The seven-point contract calls no new taxes, a cap on property taxes, a focus on water issues, audits of education performance, a limit on government growth, and a change in medical-malpractice and construction-defect laws.