Letter: Don’t shortchange Nevada candidates

Friday, May 12, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

I read and reread Jon Ralston's May 10 column and I really am disgusted. In an effort to be humorous, he writes a piece that goes far to explain why there is such a shortage of good, intelligent people to run for public office.

Certainly Nevada has some strange and tainted people running this year, and so does every other state. Ralston does no real service when he lumps in some excellent, solid candidates with the fringe people. Cute, but not really straight.

Let's look to California, where there are millions more people to choose from when creating a gubernatorial candidate. Republicans have Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is now coming down firmly on both sides of every major issue. Democrats can choose from Steve Westly, a nerd with too much money, or Phil Angelides, who has the charisma of a turnip and seems devoid of leadership skills.

In this small state I've been able to meet and ask questions of all five major candidates for governor. Nevadans are fortunate to have five intelligent, honest people running for office.

We shall not be voting for a humanoid apparatchik in November.

Kenneth Record, Las Vegas