Tuesday, May 19, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.
If Nevada's shortened filing period began two weeks ago with a whisper, it ended Monday with a bang when Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren filed to run for governor.
Jones and Hammargren set off two explosions that changed the landscape of the 1998 political terrain, especially in the race that had all but been ceded to Republican Kenny Guinn.
"This is unbelievable," Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley said. She is seeking a third term and has yet to draw a challenger.
"This changes the whole dynamic of the election cycle. People should always have a choice, but people have been saying 'When Kenny Guinn takes office' as though it was a foregone conclusion," Buckley said.
Until Jones filed, Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, was the leading Democratic candidate, but he lacked his party's endorsement and financial support to fuel his campaign.
"He's a fine senator and I'm proud to be his colleague, but for whatever reason he hasn't been able to garner support," Buckley said. "Jan Jones brings that with her."
Democrats were saying that Jones' entrance would galvanize the party's efforts to take control of the Senate and keep the Assembly.
"It looks good. It looks good for us and good for the Senate," Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said.
When the dust settled Monday night, a record 15 candidates had entered the race to succeed retiring Gov. Bob Miller.
And there were 11 politicians hoping to succeed Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren.
Hammargren says he intends to spend $1 million to beat Kenny Guinn and Aaron Russo, the other two major GOP members in the race. And Jones, with the backing of Gov. Miller, now becomes the favorite to win the Democratic nomination over Sen. Joe Neal, D-Las Vegas, in a field of nine in the party's primary election.
Titus, meanwhile, is trying to orchestrate a Democratic takeover of the state Senate.
Titus was confident that her candidate, Terry Care, would give Republican Jack Close a run for the seat being vacated by Kathy Augustine, who is now running for state controller. Care faces a primary challenge from Russell Davis, who was encouraged by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa to run.
As the polls and filings Monday showed, Titus said, "There are no done deals in politics."
Democrats were also happy with the entry Monday of Assemblyman Dario Herrera in the race to win the County Commission District G seat being vacated by Lorraine Hunt, who is running for lieutenant governor.
"What a fine candidate he is, and what a fine commissioner he will be," Buckley said.
That may be, but Herrera learned one of the finer points of running for office when he withdrew from re-election to his Assembly seat and discovered he had forfeited the $100 filing fee he had hoped to apply to his commission bid. He turned to the 30 people at the filing office who had come to show their support and quickly raised the $100 needed to file for office.
Raising the $600,000 he estimates he'll need for the campaign would be just as easy, Herrera said. He said he has $80,000 plus another $110,000 pledged to his campaign. He faces county planner Jeff Hardcastle, Mike Harris and Tom Chickory in the Sept. 1 primary.
Jones, too, came up short with her filing fee, sending her husband, Richard Schuetz, down to an ATM machine to extract the $300 needed to file for governor.
"I don't want people to forget it's the more votes you have, not the more money you raise, that decides who wins," Jones said. She lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary four years ago to Gov. Bob Miller, who has said he supports Jones' campaign.
"Everything is different from four years ago," Jones, who is recovering from breast cancer, said.
If Jones re-energized the Democratic Party with her entry, Hammargren's announcement set off a chain reaction that helped many Republicans get off the fence.
"I had to wait and see what Lonnie would do," District Court Judge Don Chairez said. "When he filed, that got the ball rolling." Chairez filed for the 1st Congressional District seat Rep. John Ensign gave up to run against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Aaron Russo, who has billed himself as a state's-rights and tax-reform Republican candidate for governor, looked favorably on the development.
"This opens up the race," Russo said. "There is a choice for everybody."
While Russo portrayed Guinn as part of the political machine, Hammargren denounced Guinn as a turncoat who "speaks about loyalty to Republicans, but his comments are hollow."
Hammargren said he was the only mainstream Republican candidate, with Russo to the right and Guinn to the left, noting his past support of Democratic candidates and labor.
"The process of anointing a candidate with power and money subverts the American elective process of choice," Hammargren said.
The 15 people filing to run for governor included perennial Democratic candidate and trash collector Carlo Poliak, Libertarian Terry Savage, first-time candidate Caesar Adamson and Democrat Bruce Westcott.
While filing for governor at the secretary of state's Las Vegas office Monday morning, Westcott angrily asked reporters why they were waiting for Jones to file.
"You're going to stand there all day on the chance that she might file, while there's a live candidate right here?" Westcott said.
Altogether Monday, more than 550 people filed statewide for federal, state and local offices, Deputy Secretary for Elections Pamela Crowell said. That includes the 26 people who filed Monday with the secretary of state and the 50 who had filed in Clark County by the 5 p.m. deadline.
Included in Monday's filings were three candidates for lieutenant governor: Democrat Rose McKinney-James of Las Vegas, Republican Ann Demers of Reno and Democrat William Montgomery, also of Reno. They bring the number of candidates for lieutenant governor to 11.
McKinney-James was accompanied as she filed by Gov. Miller.
Other races that drew big numbers included the Clark County clerk's race and the Las Vegas constable race. They each drew 13 candidates.
On the other end of the scale, District Attorney Stewart Bell remained unopposed, as did state Sens. Mark James, Bill O'Donnell, Buckley and Barbara Cegavske.
Independent candidates still have until July 1 to file for the general election Nov. 3.
Three incumbent Las Vegas justices of the peace and half of the six Family Court judges remained unchallenged when filing closed Monday.
But crowds formed in the other Family Court races, as well as for the three newly created District Court seats and one Justice Court post.
Getting a free ride to return to their Justice Court seats for six-year terms were James Bixler, Nancy Oesterle and Tony Abbatangelo.
In Family Court, incumbents Gloria Sanchez, Steve Jones and Bob Gaston were without challengers. But embattled Judge Fran Fine, who has received low ratings from attorneys and criticism from litigants, has drawn opposition.
The three new District Court seats have drawn a total of 12 candidates, and the newly created Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Department 7 slot has drawn five candidates.
At day's end, about 40 people crowded in the filing room of the county elections department at the Clark County Government Center, studying the wall chart to see who their opponents were.
Among them was Ed Gobel, who helped push for legislation creating a veterans home in Southern Nevada. Gobel had filed earlier for the state university board of regents seat vacated by Maddy Graves, along with Darryl Car, Sherry Colquitt, Steve Sisolak and Arnold Ross Stalk.
Sitting in his wheelchair, Gobel said his experience with veterans issues led him to seek public office. He chose the board of regents because of his concerns about the state's system of higher education, especially rising tuition costs.
"I have two kids at UNLV; my wife graduated from there," Gobel said. "I don't think the university has any focus."
Also present was Democratic Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, who was passing out shamrocks for luck (her business is Shamrock Real Estate Services). The pot of green must not have been working for her, because at the last minute, Judi Lynn of North Las Vegas walked in to file against Chowning for the Democratic primary.
SUN REPORTERS Cy Ryan, Bill Gang and Denise Cardinal contributed to this story.
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