Fourth District primary is a fight among familiar faces

Former Assembly Speaker John Oceguera will certainly be seeing a lot of familiar faces on the trail as he campaigns for Congress in the Fourth District.

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, served in the Assembly with Oceguera before Kihuen got elected to the state Senate in 2010. And former Assemblywoman Lucy Flores served one of her two Assembly terms with Oceguera, too. Flores left the Assembly last year to run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor.

Even incumbent Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy is a former Oceguera colleague. In fact, the only person in the race who hasn’t served in the Assembly is philanthropist Susie Lee.

But Oceguera — who announced his candidacy on Thursday — says his resume stands out among the crowd.

“But where I think you see the difference is in our value system, in our longevity in the district, record of service,” Oceguera said. “I’ve served in the Legislature for 12 years and led some of the folks we’re talking about. So I have a larger and more specific record than they do.”

Not only that, Oceguera said, but he grew up in Northern Nevada just over the district’s northern boundary, and later served as a firefighter in the district. “I served, again, in the North Las Vegas Fire Department in the middle of this district, and I’ve got to tell you, the district seems more well suited to me than it does some of the other folks.”

Yet some of those other folks are looking aggressive in the early stages of the campaign. Kihuen’s campaign reported he raised $216,000, and Lee’s campaign says she raised $280,000. Not only that, but Kihuen and especially Flores can claim an advantage in a year that’s described variously as the year of the Latino (with Nevada’s growing Hispanic voter bloc) and the year of the woman (with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the likely Democratic presidential nominee).

But the majority of the district is still white voters, and some of them are more rural and conservative than their urban counterparts. Oceguera is counting on earning those votes. “I spent a lot of time traveling around, camping, hunting and fishing throughout the whole Eastern and middle part of the state,” Oceguera said. (Funny, that’s just what Flores said in last year’s lieutenant governor’s campaign when asked about her rural bona fides!)

Still, Oceguera said the demographics won’t hurt his campaign. “I’m sure there will be some play as far as that goes, but we want to talk to all the Nevadans in this district,” he said. “I think relying on just talking to one demographic group would be a mistake and we’re not going to do that. We’re going to talk to everybody we can.”

Oceguera ran for Congress back in 2012, against Rep. Joe Heck, but lost the race 50 percent to 43 percent, a difference of about 20,000 votes. But the voter registration numbers in the Fourth District this year look much better than they did in the Third District back in 2012: It’s 42 percent Democrat, 32 percent Republican, with more than 30,000 more active Democratic voters than Republicans. That bodes very well for whomever emerges from this crowded Democratic primary.

So what about the anticipated attacks on him for being a well-compensated firefighter who’s enjoying a pension from the fire service and the Nevada Legislature? Oceguera is unapologetic about his record. “I’m not going to apologize for being a firefighter for 20 years. I risked my life for the people of this community and the people of this district every day,” he said. “What I’m saying is, it’s a young person’s job and that’s why we have early retirement, so I’m not going to be apologetic for leaving when I was allowed to and playing by the rules as they were set out.”

Oceguera has a better chance than ever in a general election of beating an incumbent Republican and heading to Washington, D.C. The toughest part of the race, in fact, will probably be the fight among all of those familiar faces.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.