ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 8

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 1:34 a.m.

Republican Patricia Peacock hopes to rattle Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley by making taxes an issue in District 8, where Buckley is running for a sixth term.

Peacock, a 63-year-old businesswoman, says her concern with taxes comes from talking to residents in her district, and that she will "vigorously support legislation that reduces taxes."

But that may be a hard sell in District 8, a western Las Vegas district with about 6,400 registered Democrats, 4,000 Republicans and 2,200 unaffiliated voters.

Buckley, 43, is the executive director of Clark County Legal Services, which provides charity legal aid.

Buckley's biggest concern for the coming session is health care. "In my next term, I will seek to improve Nevada's dismal health insurance rate, enact consumer protection legislation, and expand assisted living options for senior citizens," she wrote in a Sun questionnaire.

Previously, Buckley's health care efforts have included helping pass Nevada's patients' bill of rights, revamping the Senior Rx program and spearheading the effort to bring the state's first nonprofit assisted-living facility to Las Vegas.

Buckley is the first woman in Nevada to hold the title of majority leader. For three consecutive legislative sessions, other legislators have voted her the Assembly's best member.

She is vice chairwoman of the Commerce Committee and chairwoman of the Subcommittee to Study Health Care Expansion Options. She has received honors for her advocacy of consumers and children, and Las Vegas Life magazine this year called her the "Best Reason Not to Lose Faith in the Legislature."

She has received endorsements from several unions and police associations, the Caucus of African-American Nevadans, the Nevada Association of Manufactured Home Owners, the Nevada Conservation League, the Nevada Nurses Association, the state Education Association, Seniors United and the National Rifle Association.

Buckley holds an undergraduate degree in criminal justice from UNLV and a law degree from the University of Arizona.

Peacock, who has lived in Las Vegas for 42 years and in District 8 for 24, owns a landscaping business and has worked as a Realtor and mortgage lender, jobs she says have given her people skills and "the ability to listen carefully to what the people in my district are saying."

According to her Web site, she is concerned about health care and education, but she does not believe last year's tax increase, and the methods used to pass it, were justified.

"If the state is not careful with this spending, it will be in danger of taxing its businesses and citizens too heavily for their survival and their liberty," she wrote on the site.

Peacock has an undergraduate degree in English from UNLV. She has received no endorsements. She is a member of the University Medical Center Auxiliary, which raises money for the hospital.