SUPREME COURT SEAT A

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 1:30 a.m.

Two judges are vying to take over the Supreme Court seat that has been held for 12 years by retiring Chief Justice Miriam Shearing.

Clark County Family Court Judge Cynthia "Dianne" Steel, 51, will face Washoe County District Judge Jim Hardesty, 55, in the general election.

Steel has been a Family Court judge since 1997. Before that she served one term in the Assembly and was chief of staff for the lieutenant governor's office in Las Vegas. She has also served as president and vice president of the Nevada District Judges Association.

Steel graduated from Valdosta State College with a theater degree and earned a law degree from the California Western School of Law.

If elected, Steel said she would like to improve the rules of procedure in Juvenile Court and open a Supreme Court branch in Las Vegas for filing documents. She said she would also like to participate in consolidating domestic violence courts.

As chief judge in Washoe County, Hardesty says he has brought innovations and budget savings to the court system.

Hardesty, who has an accounting degree from UNR and a law degree from the University of the Pacific, said he has been able to make budget cuts while the number of cases increased by 25 percent.

He said the case management of the Supreme Court can be improved and that justices should confer before they hear oral arguments. The jury instructions for civil cases need to be rewritten and the issue of financing the legal system should be examined, he said. Hardesty was a practicing lawyer for more than 25 years.

Both Hardesty and Steel said they would have handled the controversy involving the impasse in the 2003 Legislature over taxes differently that the sitting Supreme Court did.

Steel says she would have rejected Gov. Kenny Guinn's petition to get involved in the case. Hardesty said he would have asked for oral arguments and for a briefing on what sanctions might be applied if the Legislature failed to reach agreement by July 1.

The Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, ruled that a two-thirds vote was not necessary to increase taxes to fund education.