Hunt assumes temporary state GOP chairmanship

CARSON CITY -- Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt has agreed to become chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party on a temporary basis, and her first job will be to bail it out of a near $300,000 debt.

Hunt said today she did not want the job, but she was asked by Gov. Kenny Guinn to temporarily succeed John Mason who resigned after four years.

The big challenge, Hunt said will be to get the party in the black before a permanent chairman is chosen next spring.

But there may be a minor hitch in Hunt moving into the top job.

Bylaws of the GOP say the chair and the vice chair must come from different parts of the state. Hunt and vice chair Lia Roberts both live in Las Vegas.

Ryan Erwin, executive director of the Nevada Republican Party, said those bylaws could be changed.

Mason, who lives in Douglas County at Lake Tahoe, is resigning Oct. 15. A meeting of the state GOP Central Committee has tentatively been scheduled for Oct. 16 or Oct. 23 in Carson City to choose a temporary successor. That person would serve until next May when the party holds its state convention in Carson City.

Mason said he is resigning to allow the "selection of a new chairman sufficiently prior to the 2000 elections to provide for our greatest success in the all important battle for control of the Assembly and the redistricting process."

Guinn's press secretary Jack Finn said the governor asked Hunt to take the job, and the governor was "gratified" she accepted.

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