Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

POLITICS:

Dina Titus: ‘I don’t think anyone wants to run against me’

dinatitus1

Christopher DeVargas

Dina Titus lost her run for the state’s 3rd Congressional District by less than 2,000 votes to Joe Heck.

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Ruben Kihuen waves to the crowd during his campaign kickoff celebration at Rancho High School in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011. Kihuen, who is a state senator, is running for Congress in 2012.

Because of uncertainty surrounding the redrawing of congressional boundaries, former Rep. Dina Titus said she isn’t committing to run in any district yet but also isn’t afraid of any potential primary matchup.

Some fellow Democrats have begun planting flags in the districts drawn this month by court-appointed special masters. But Titus is content to remain a wild card in the Democratic game of musical chairs.

“I’ve been in a primary before. It’s hard when it’s in the family, but whenever there’s an open seat, there could be a primary,” she said.

(She won a brutal campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor against former Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson in 2006, losing in the general election to Republican Jim Gibbons.)

Titus noted that those drawing the districts have shuffled her among the three Southern Nevada districts.

“I don’t think anyone wants to run against me. I’ve got a good record, solid support with the base,” she said.

The special masters released maps after a stalemate between Democrats in the Legislature and Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval prevented a redistricting compromise in this year’s session. District Court Judge Todd Russell will hold a hearing this week on the maps. The Nevada Supreme Court is scheduled to hold hearings next month.

As the maps are now:

• Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, is in the 1st Congressional District, considered a “safe” Democratic seat. With a 43 percent Latino population, it has the highest concentration of a minority population. This is also where Titus lives, and seems the most likely primary for her.

Andres Ramirez, a consultant to Kihuen’s campaign, called the district, “very advantageous to his campaign.”

• State Sens. John Lee and Steven Horsford, both D-North Las Vegas, live in the new 4th Congressional District. Horsford, the Democratic majority leader for the past four years, would be a favorite in a primary against Lee, a conservative Democrat.

• Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, is campaigning against Rep. Joe Heck, R-Las Vegas, in the 3rd Congressional District.

Titus said the proposed boundaries could shift if the Nevada Supreme Court sends the process back to the Legislature to decide.

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