Democrats take slow lane on way to Rosen successor

While Las Vegas battled record heat, Nevada’s political climate veered toward the mild side in the final week of August.

Here’s a look at what happened last week, and what’s to come as the 2018 election continues to take shape.

House district gets first Democrat

With four contenders announced for the GOP primary before Labor Day, Republicans have been anything but shy about jumping in the race for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District.

But it’s been a different story for Democrats.

The seat is now held by Democrat Rep. Jacky Rosen, but it will be open in the 2018 election because Rosen is running for U.S. Senate next year.

And even though a Democrat won the seat in 2016, it wasn’t until Thursday that the race finally got its first 2018 Democratic candidate, when local business owner Jack Love announced his campaign.

Love, a first-time candidate for office, admits he is an underdog in the race.

But with more than nine months to go before the primary, Democrats have plenty of time to recruit candidates to the seat.

Local philanthropist and Democrat Susie Lee is rumored to be seriously considering a run for the seat as well.

Lee was urged to run for the seat in 2016 but decided instead to run for the seat in the more Democratic-leaning 4th District. She finished third in the Democratic primary in that race.

Halseth planning a comeback

Former state Sen. Elizabeth Halseth is planning a political comeback next year, more than a half-decade after resigning from the body amid a messy divorce.

Halseth, now Elizabeth Helgelien, was the youngest state senator in Nevada history when she was elected in 2010 at age 27.

But just over a year into her four-year term, she resigned from the seat.

In her February 2012 resignation letter to Gov. Brian Sandoval, she wrote that she had to move out of Nevada because she was “regularly demonized by selfish partisans and a handful of reckless bloggers with personal agendas of salacious, unfounded personal attacks.”

Now, Helgelien said she’s in a “very safe, secure” place in her life now and sees next year as the perfect opportunity to make her return.

Schwartz ‘special announcement’ scheduled for Tuesday

Nevada Treasurer Dan Schwartz’s long-expected campaign for governor is expected to be made official this week.

He is scheduled to make a “special announcement” Tuesday about his plans for 2018 at the Republican Men’s Club monthly luncheon at Cili Restaurant at Bali Hai Golf Club.

Schwartz, a Republican who has provoked the ire of state lawmakers in both parties, has said he is strongly considering a run to replace Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who can’t run again because of term limits.

Adding fuel to that fire, Schwartz said in August that he has no plans to seek a second term as treasurer.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.