Horsford: Neal left ‘enormous shoes to fill’ in Senate 4

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 9:14 a.m.

Steven Horsford crushed four opponents in the Senate District 4 Democratic primary Tuesday night, winning about half of all votes cast in the hotly contested race to succeed retiring Sen. Joe Neal.

Horsford collected 4,157 votes or 50 percent and will be an overwhelming favorite in the heavily Democratic district to defeat Republican Mabel Florence Lucier in the general election.

Horsford sensed his campaign was in good shape in recent weeks as he received considerable positive feedback while walking door to door in the district.

"People were saying they had already voted for me, or that they planned to vote for me," he said Tuesday night. "Our message resonated with the voters. We're in awe. Clearly we had an enormous amount of support from family and friends."

Horsford, the chief executive of Nevada Partners, a nonprofit job-training group, said he expects to work hard through the remaining weeks of the election season. Even if his race won't be close, it's important for the district's voters to turn out to weigh in on presidential, congressional and local races, he noted.

Tuesday's race wasn't as close as many had predicted, with Horsford, the labor-backed candidate, easily able to overcome the efforts of a gaming industry favorite and a couple of sitting officeholders.

Cedric Crear finished a distant second with 21.8 percent, with Board of Regents member Linda Howard, State Board of Education member Terri Malone and lawyer Bert Mack following.

Jim Ferrence, a political consultant who worked with Crear, said the Culinary Union's get-out-the-vote work for Horsford proved formidable, even though his candidate raised more money.

Political watchers had pointed out that the union could have been more motivated to beat Crear because many of Crear's primary backers were Station Casinos executives or the company's affiliates.

Ferrence said that connection between Crear and Station Casinos was overblown.

"I still think the connection is ridiculous," he said. "But it does show that they made that connection with their members."

Horsford said Neal leaves a powerful legacy in the district, which was carved out in 1970 to create a majority black district. Recent growth and redistricting has reduced the number of blacks in the district from 69.2 percent in 1980 to 28.5 percent.

Neal held the seat for 32 years.

"They are enormous shoes to fill," Horsford said of Neal's service, noting that he expects to keep the seat Democratic, and will work with his primary opponents to do so.