Washoe, Clark County judges to square off in general

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

A Northern Nevada judge will square off against a District Court judge from Las Vegas in the general election race for the state Supreme Court.

Chief District Judge Jim Hardesty, 55, of Washoe County, easily took the top spot in the Seat A race to replace retiring Justice Miriam Shearing, but the right to challenge him in November was a close race throughout the night.

Once votes from Northern Nevada were counted, District Judge Cynthia "Dianne" Steel of Las Vegas beat out Las Vegas Probate Commissioner Don Ashworth.

The top two vote-getters in Tuesday's primary advance to the November general election.

Ashworth led Steel in Clark County, where he received 30 percent of the vote to Steel's 27 percent, but Steel appeared to beat Ashworth statewide, with 20.9 percent of the vote to Ashworth's 20.2 percent.

Washoe County had reported only 80 percent of its precincts this morning, but Steel was ahead of Ashworth there 12.7 percent to 7 percent.

Hardesty serves as a faculty member for the National Judicial College and has received the highest retention rating by the Washoe County Bar Association. He received 109,330 votes statewide -- 43 percent -- and was leading in Washoe County with 69 percent of votes there.

Steel, 51, a Family Court judge since 1997, has said she wants to improve procedures in Juvenile Court and open a Supreme Court office in Las Vegas for document filing. She received 52,695 votes statewide, with the Washoe count incomplete.

Ashworth, the 66-year-old probate commissioner, ran on a "strict constitutionalist" platform, having served in his current position for 13 years. Ashworth, who holds a law degree from the University of Utah, was previously the corporate counsel for Mandalay Resort Group forerunner Circus-Circus Enterprises. He received 50,984 votes.

Reno lawyer Kevin Mirch, a fourth-generation Nevadan who has battled a number of hospitals and gaming companies, received a few more than 10,022 votes, about 4 percent, less than half of those who chose "none of these candidates."

Seat E

A Las Vegas judge will face an entertainment lawyer in the general election.

District Judge Ron Parraguirre, easily garnered the most votes in the primary to replace Justice Deborah Agosti, who decided not to run for re-election.

He will face entertainment lawyer John Mason, 57, who entered the race after Justice Deborah Agosti penned the controversial decision that the Legislature could pass taxes to fund education without a constitutionally required two-thirds vote.

Parraguirre, with 96,187 votes, won roughly 39 percent of the vote.

Mason narrowly beat former lawyer and teacher Lori Lipman Brown, 46, for the second spot on the general election ballot. With 100 percent of the votes counted in all but Washoe County, Mason led Brown 47,433 to 44,604 votes. That gave Mason 19 percent of the statewide vote to Brown's 18 percent. Mason was easily beating Brown in Washoe County.

Douglas Smith, a Las Vegas justice of the peace, garnered 13 percent of the vote.

Parraguirre, 45, is the president of the Nevada District Judges Association and graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law.