Assemblyman Goicoechea to run for Senate seat

CARSON CITY -- Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, announced Wednesday that he will seek election to the sprawling new Senate District 19 seat in 2012.

Goicoechea, 62, has represented rural Nevada in the Legislature since 2002. He is giving up his Assembly District 35 seat to run for a Senate seat in a district that stretches more than 500 miles, from Jarbidge in Elko County in the north to Primm in Clark County in the south. The district consists of all of Elko, Eureka, Lincoln and White Pine counties. About 22,000 of the 130,000 residents live in Clark County.

Term-limited Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, has held the seat since 1982. Until redistricting this fall, the seat did not include Clark County.

Goicoechea expects opposition, although he said he did not know who else might seek the seat. Republicans hold a
17 percentage point registration advantage over Democrats in the district.

With his departure from the Assembly, Republicans will have to pick a new leader after the election. Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno, has indicated an interest in the position. Democrats now hold a 26-16 membership lead in the Assembly.

As Assembly leader in 2011, Goicoechea said he led his party's opposition to Democratic plans to impose $1.2 million in new taxes.

"I look forward to continuing the fight for less government and lower taxes in the state Senate," he said.

Goicoechea and his wife, Glady, have owned and operated Goicoechea Ranches in Eureka since 1970.

Before serving in the Legislature, Goicoechea was a Eureka County commissioner for 16 years.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.