Lee bests Shaffer’s wife, now meets Shaffer

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 9:15 a.m.

It was one of the state's most bizarre Senate races, but a steady personality won Tuesday's primary election for Senate District 1.

John Lee, who served three terms in the Assembly, won a crowded Democratic primary Tuesday with 44 percent of the vote and will go on to face Democrat-turned-Republican Sen. Ray Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, in the Nov. 2 general election.

Lee faced a crowded and somewhat strange slate of Democrats in the primary election.

He beat out Shaffer's wife, Democrat Sharon Shaffer, who unexpectedly announced she would run for the post in May and disputed assertions she would concede the general election to her husband if she won the primary. She didn't win, coming in second with 20 percent of the votes.

Also in the race was perennial candidate and disbarred attorney Mike Schaefer, who received 19 percent of the vote; Chris Colasuono, a small business owner who received 9 percent, and Gary Rogers, a building inspector, who received 7 percent of the vote.

Schaefer admits that he has run in races simply because there are other candidates with similar names in the pool and he has designed his signs to look like other candidates' signs.

Also on Tuesday, Republican Paul Fairfield, a locksmith, pulled out a large lead over Republican and retiree Ken Sondej, in Senate District 7.

Fairfield won 70 percent of the vote, with Sondej winning 29 percent. Fairfield will face Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Independent American John Darius Russo in the Nov. 2 general election.

There was no primary in several state Senate seats to be determined in the Nov. 2 general election, including in Senate District 3, where Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, will take on Republican Leo Davenport, and in Senate District 11, where Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, will face Republican Danny Tarkanian.