Nevada voters decide legislative contests

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006 | 8:22 a.m.

5 CARSON CITY, Nev. Nevada voters dumped one legislative incumbent in primary balloting Tuesday, but final returns showed that other threatened incumbents managed to fend off challengers and advance to the November general election.

Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-North Las Vegas, lost a Democratic Party primary fight to Ruben Kihuen, who was backed by the state AFL-CIO, by a 61-32 margin. Running a distant third was David Adams, who had briefly dropped out of the race after McCleary paid him $500. Adams called it a bribe, but McCleary claimed he paid Adams to work on his campaign.

In a key Republican primary, embattled state Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, scored a 49-44 victory over John Jackson, a construction consultant endorsed by his close friend, Nevada Sen. John Ensign. Dennis P. Sarfaty, a retired naval officer and real estate investor, trailed badly.

Tiffany was seen as vulnerable because she faces a September hearing before the state Ethics Commission on charges she used her office to pass legislation that would have benefited her online auction business.

In the Democratic primary for the Senate District 5 seat, education advocate Joyce Woodhouse scored a 60-40 win over Gayle Nathan.

In Senate District 8, incumbent Republican Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, defeated GOP challenger Tim Cory by a 62-38 margin.

Democrats had hoped that at least one of the GOP incumbent senators would lose, which would have improved the odds of a Democrat winning in the general election - and narrowing the current GOP margin from 12-9 to 11-10.

In the Assembly, Democrats have a 26-16 advantage. They hope to increase that edge by a few seats in the November elections.

While McCleary lost in Tuesday's primary balloting, several other Assembly incumbents won their races.

Assemblywoman Frances Allen, R-Las Vegas, representing District 4, defeated Cliff Fields by a 52-48 margin. Fields had lined up endorsements from the conservative Nevada Concerned Citizens and national anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist.

In District 3, Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce, D-Las Vegas, won with 42 percent of the vote in her Democratic primary battle. Bill Roberts, a retired operating engineer endorsed by the Nevada AFL-CIO, and Mel Kalagian, who ran unsuccessfully against Pierce in 2004, each had about 29 percent apiece.

In District 9, Las Vegas attorney "Tick" Segerblom, whose mother and grandmother served in the Assembly and great-grandfather served in the Senate, defeated Ben Contine and Lewis Whitten to win the Democratic nomination.

Democrat James Ohrenschall was a 75-25 winner in the race for the Las Vegas-based Assembly District 12 seat that his mother, Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, is vacating. He defeated Brandon Casutt in the Democratic primary.

In the race for northern Nevada's sprawling, multi-county District 32 seat, veteran Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, won with a 51-49 margin over fellow Republican and party activist Mike Weber of Reno.

Also in northern Nevada, Ty Cobb was a 48-43 winner over Mike Dillon, grandson of former GOP Rep. Barbara Vucanovich, in a Republican primary race for the Reno-based Assembly District 26 seat. Also in that GOP primary were Richard Disney, Paul Mozen and Michael Sherriff.

Reno community activist David Bobzien was a 70-30 winner over David Love in the Democratic primary for the Assembly District 24 seat; and former Carson City School Board member Sheila Ward was a 54-46 winner over retired engineer John Wagner in a Republican primary contest for the Assembly District 40 seat.

In Assembly District 39, Carson Valley rancher James Settelmeyer won the Republican nomination by easily defeating lawyer and construction company owner Rick Gardner, former Douglas County Commissioner Barbara Smallwood and retiree John Dicks.

Eight incumbent legislators decided against seeking new terms. They included the two top lawmakers in the Assembly - Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, and Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville.

Fourteen incumbent state legislators got free rides because nobody filed against them.