Lawsuit says Del Papa not allowed to run again

Fallon resident Marilyn O'Connor has asked for a Carson District Court ruling making her and not Del Papa the Democratic Party nominee.

O'Connor, a non-lawyer who has been battling the Internal Revenue Service, got 18 percent of the Sept. 1 primary vote, compared with 76 percent for Del Papa.

In her lawsuit, O'Connor said that the term limits question passed by Nevada voters in November 1996 applied retroactively to current officeholders.

Passage of the question limited people elected to the state's top constitutional offices to two terms.

But three months before the voters approved the 1996 measure, the attorney general's office issued an opinion that said it wouldn't apply retroactively.

Del Papa said Wednesday that if O'Connor prevailed with her lawsuit, the effects would be far-reaching because many candidates on the November ballot couldn't run.

Sig Rogich, the Las Vegas political consultant who led the petition drive to put the term limit question before voters, said he never meant it to apply retroactively.

"When we circulated petitions, we gave people assurances that it would not be retroactive," Rogich said.

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