Nancy Saitta Michael Douglas Michael Cherry

Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker was headed for defeat Tuesday night amid backlash from her role in a controversial decision three years ago.

Of those who sided with the majority in the 2003 Guinn v. Legislature ruling, Becker was the first to run for re-election. As of 11:30 p.m., she was losing to Clark County District Judge Nancy Saitta in the Seat G race.

"I think that it was a very tough race," political consultant Dan Hart said. "I think Justice Becker got hurt by the Guinn decision, and I think Nancy Saitta ran a very effective campaign."

Hart ran the campaign of Justice Michael Douglas, who prevailed over Clark County Family Court Judge Cynthia "Dianne" Steel in the race for Seat F. Clark County District Judge Michael Cherry ran unopposed for Seat C on the Supreme Court.

Becker had been on the defense in her re-election campaign for her part in two controversial Supreme Court decisions. In 2003, she was one of six justices who ruled in Guinn v. Legislature that a constitutional mandate to fund education took precedence over a two-thirds vote requirement for lawmakers to raise taxes. Douglas was not on the court at the time.

The Legislature did approve an $833 million tax increase by the two-thirds vote requirement, ending a deadlock, but the court decision was criticized as a form of judicial activism. The Supreme Court reversed its decision in September.

Hart said he is not sure the reversal helped Becker. "In some ways, that only called attention to it," he said.

Becker also authored a decision in 2003 in an eminent domain case involving Las Vegas property owner Carol Pappas. The 5-2 ruling upheld the taking of Pappas' land for a parking garage for the Fremont Street Experience. The Pappas family settled with Las Vegas in 2004 for $4.5 million.

With 1,655 out of 1,913 precincts reporting, Saitta had captured 47 percent of the vote, while Becker received 38 percent. Another 15 percent voted for "none of these candidates."

"When a special-interest group targets you, and they have a lot more money than you do, they can put a lot of false and misleading commercials on the air, and there's not a lot I can do to compete with that," Becker said Tuesday night.

The justice said she was targeted by "a group of trial lawyers who make their money from eminent domain cases and some attorneys who've lost unanimous decisions of the court."

"They misrepresented to the public that I was responsible for taxes being raised," she said. "That, of course, is a complete falsehood."

Saitta, 55, said Becker's defeat was the result of more than one or two rulings. "There's been a long line of decisions that have not been good for this state, and I think the people are responding to that record," she said.

Becker, 51, said she is proud of her career but has no plans to run for office again.

"I'm not going to predict what I'm going to do 10 years from now," she said.

Becker was elected to the Supreme Court in 1998. She previously spent 10 years as a Clark County district judge.

Saitta, who formerly was the state's children's advocate and senior deputy attorney general, was elected to the District Court bench in 1998.

In the other Supreme Court race, with 1,650 precincts out of 1,913 precincts reporting, Douglas had received 49 percent of the vote, while Steel received 36 percent and another 15 percent chose "none of these candidates."

Douglas, 58, was appointed in March 2004 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Myron Leavitt. He defeated Las Vegas attorney Joel Hansen later that year for the right to serve out the remaining two years of Leavitt's term.

Steel, 53, first ran for a Supreme Court seat in 2004, when she sought the seat vacated by Justice Miriam Shearing. Although Steel survived the primary election that year, she lost in the general election to Jim Hardesty.

Douglas served as a Clark County district judge from 1996 to 2004. He previously worked for 11 years as a Clark County deputy district attorney. He spent a year in the family support division of the district attorney's office before moving to the civil division.

Steel ran unsuccessfully for a Clark County Family Court seat in 1992, two years after receiving her law degree.

She was elected to the Assembly in 1994 but resigned in February 1996 to become chief of staff for then-Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren. Later that year, Steel was elected to a new seat in Family court.