For some, voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard

By Michael Mishak

Friday, Nov. 10, 2006 | 6:53 a.m.

For some people it's hip-hop. For others it's country music. The first few notes have them harrumphing before changing the channel.

For some in Nevada, it's Dina Titus' voice.

Although it's the equivalent of not voting for someone because she's too tall, a number of voters throughout Nevada's gubernatorial race openly expressed their disdain for the Democratic nominee based on, of all things, her Georgia drawl.

It's Southern, but for many, not exactly charming.

Eric Herzik, a UNR political scientist, said that - while a petty issue - Titus' voice was a tipping point for some voters. "It didn't cut for her, I'll put it that way," he said.

For Wendi Stewart, a registered Democrat who was interviewed by the Sun on Tuesday, that was the case. "She has a Southern accent and she's

running for governor of Nevada? Well, we don't have Southern accents here."

Gary Gray, a Democratic consultant and longtime Titus friend, said those bothered by Titus' voice used it as an excuse for their general dislike of the candidate.

"I don't think people can always quite put their finger on why they don't like a candidate," he said. "So they point to something else and say, 'That's it.' "

Steve Redlinger, another Democratic consultant, said the voice issue smacked of sexism.

"If you're a strong woman, sometimes your qualities can be turned against you," he said. "A man with a demanding voice probably doesn't catch as much flak as a woman."

Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes gubernatorial races around the country for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, found the accent issue odd given Nevada's transient population.

"Maybe voters suspected she ought not to have it anymore," she quipped. "She's been there for some time."

In fact, Titus has been here for 30 years - so long that she says she doesn't even hear her own accent anymore. And after three decades in the Silver State, she's firing back.

"Eighty percent of the people in Nevada come from somewhere else," she said. "You've got lots of accents."

Titus said she recently called a man who had complained about her accent in a letter to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"He was from Brooklyn," she exclaimed - in, of course, her Georgia drawl.

Sun reporter J. Patrick Coolican contributed to this story.