Incumbents win in most of their races

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

The majority of the members of the Clark County Commission easily won their primary elections on Tuesday.

Clark County Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield, who represents District C, easily outpolled political outsider Bill Krane, owner of a Las Vegas health food store. Maxfield took close to 71 percent of the vote, with 10,925 votes to 4,523.

Maxfield faces Deputy District Attorney Jerry Tao, who had no opponent Tuesday.

Incumbent Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who has more than two decades on the commission, easily dispatched challenger Anthony Radovcich in the Republican primary for the District A seat. Woodbury took better than 82 percent of the vote, with 12,785 votes to 2,676,

Woodbury faces Independent American Party candidate William Boyd Ballard II, a Henderson resident who had no competitors.

No Democrats filed for the seat this year.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, seeking her fourth term representing the county's urban core including downtown Las Vegas, easily won her party's nod for the general election.

Atkinson Gates defeated Joe Neal, a 32-year veteran of the state Senate, perhaps best known for his controversial calls for tax increases on casino profits, with 64 percent of the vote to Neal's 21 percent. A third candidate, Jesus Carlos Morena, received 15 percent.

Neal said this might be the end of his political career, but not of the issue that he has focused on.

"They way I see it my issues are still out there and percolating," he said. "I don't see it as a win-loss situation. ... As far as the issue of lobbying and gaming and its control of the community, I think it's going to grow stronger.

Saying he was retired now, Neal added, "I'm not going away. I'll probably make a trip or two up to the Legislature to speak out on those issues I feel strongly about, if I can, to lend whatever little voice or work that I may have left in me."

Atkinson Gates received 5,462 votes to Neal's 1,834. Moreno, a Clark County Public Works technician, received 1,299.

Running unopposed for the seat in the district with a 3-to-1 Democratic registration advantage were Republican Chester Major Richardson and Independent American Scott David Narter.

Assemblyman David Goldwater easily won the Democratic primary for District F with 72 percent of the vote with 6,976 votes to challenger Bob Taylor, a University Medical Center employee, taking 28 percent with 2,697 votes.

Goldwater faces incumbent Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald in the general election. Boggs McDonald, appointed in March to serve out the term of former Commissioner Mark James, beat county employee John "Rob" Bishop with close to 64 percent of the vote, 5,083 to 2,881.