EDITORIAL: Don’t elect the next Bonaventura

The next John Bonaventura is on this fall’s ballot, hoping you aren’t paying attention, hoping you won’t do your homework. There are a great many down-ticket offices on this fall’s ballot that have great powers and important responsibilities. If voters fail to make informed choices in those races, an especially unqualified office holder can cause great harm to the public — just like John Bonaventura.

Four years ago, voters made an epic mistake in electing Bonaventura to the office of Las Vegas constable. His last name was similar to that of a pair of well-known judges. Voters should have known that he had no business running a group of certified peace officers charged with serving eviction notices and court papers. But they punched the button for him anyway, thinking, “It’s the constable’s office, so what?” He made such a mockery of the office through misuse of authority, bad hires and generally embarrassing behavior that the County Commission abolished the office.

As Bonaventura serves his final days in office, he’s a living reminder to voters to be on the lookout for especially bad candidates who see elected office as a gravy train. Here are four challengers who could be the next John Bonaventura — four candidates you absolutely, positively mustn’t vote for.

1. Jim Duensing Jr., Libertarian candidate for Clark County district attorney. Duensing, who was shot by police in 2009 after fighting with officers and running from a traffic stop, goes on trial next week on felony charges of resisting a police officer, being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon. Imagine electing a felon to be the county’s top prosecutor. Vote for the incumbent, Democrat Steve Wolfson, instead.

2. Mike “Doc” Javornicky, Republican candidate for Clark County treasurer. Mr. Javornicky told this newspaper in 2010 (when he first sought the office of the county’s chief tax collector, banker and investment officer) that the job is “not too demanding. As long as you’ve got a good deputy, you don’t have to be there all the time.” Such work ethic! Vote for the incumbent, Democrat Laura Fitzpatrick, instead.

3. Jacob Hafter, candidate for District Court judge, Department 22. What kind of attorney goes on a social media tirade against a sitting judge during his trial before that judge? Mr. Hafter, an Orthodox Jew who eviscerated Judge Valorie Vega as a racist and an anti-Semite, even though her husband, Review-Journal gaming reporter/columnist Howard Stutz, is Jewish. Vote for the incumbent, Judge Susan Johnson, instead.

4. Terry Watson, Democratic candidate for Henderson constable. We know what happens when voters elect an unqualified constable (see above). Mr. Watson is running such a low-profile campaign that we know almost nothing about him — except that he hasn’t attended a law enforcement academy, and that he’ll have to attend one if he wins. Yikes. Vote for the incumbent, Republican Earl Mitchell, instead.