2012 PRIMARY ELECTION: 1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Five little-known Republicans are running for the right to challenge former U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat who faces no primary opponent in the 1st Congressional District race.

The GOP lineup consists of first-time candidates with one exception: a former Libertarian Party member who ran for Congress in California seven times and retired to Las Vegas in August.

Herb Peters, the Nevada transplant, said he wants to legalize drugs and return to the days when households had "one breadwinner and one homemaker."

That sets him apart from the rest of the GOP field, which includes three military veterans - one a Hispanic school principal - and a conservative woman who has fought legalized abortion and has been involved in Clark County party politics.

The Republican Party isn't putting much effort into the race for the urban district now held by U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who's running for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

That's because Democrats have a near 2-to-1 advantage over Republicans in voter registration after the boundaries were redrawn as part of redistricting, which happens every 10 years.

Also, Titus is well known. She served 20 years in the Nevada Senate and one term in Congress, representing the 3rd Congressional District before her 2010 defeat by U.S. Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev.

Titus has been socking away so much donated money in her campaign war chest - $414,000 at the end of March - that she's giving to other Democratic candidates in closer races in Nevada and across the country as her party tries to retake control of the U.S. House from the GOP.

The Republicans vying to take on Titus in November all said they know that if they win the June 12 GOP primary, they'll have a near-impossible task to defeat the Democrat. Yet they also said they believe voters are tired of runaway government spending and don't like President Barack Obama's policies, such as his health care reform law, which Titus voted for when she was in Congress.

"I think I have more to offer," said Chris Edwards, who has been campaigning full time to win the GOP primary and has spent $20,000 of his own money. "She's got a record here to run on that people don't like - Obamacare, taxes."

Here's a look at the Republican candidates:

CHRIS EDWARDS

A Naval officer, Edwards said he first lived in Nevada a decade ago and moved back to Las Vegas more than a year ago. At his last post, he was a strategic planner in Djibouti, a U.S. military base in the Horn of Africa dedicated to fighting terrorism in Somalia, Yemen and other countries in the region.

Edwards said he decided to run for Congress after seeing the country sink into an economic crisis in 2008. He thought Washington wasn't doing enough to cut spending and get the growing deficit and debt under control. He said the 2010 elections brought in a wave of Republicans who took control of the House and began pushing for smaller government and more fiscal responsibility.

"We need to get our fiscal house in order and make government much more pro-growth," Edwards said, explaining he wants to join the GOP fight for lower taxes and less regulation to spur business hiring.

CHARMAINE GUSS

A GOP insider, Guss has served on the Clark County Republican Party executive board and is a member of the state party's central committee. She said she took a leave from her job working with clients at an anti-abortion medical organization to run for office because she wants to do more to help Southern Nevada recover from a deep housing foreclosure crisis and high unemployment.

Guss said she worked in real estate for 24 years in the Las Vegas Valley until she closed her business last year because the market was stalled and new government programs weren't working to help people sell or stay in their homes through refinancing.

"I want the government out of the real estate business," Guss said, adding that government rules and regulations also are blocking business development. "Government is not the answer."

MIGUEL "MIKE" RODRIGUES

As the only Hispanic in the GOP primary race, Rodrigues said he could wage a strong general election campaign against Titus in the district, which has a Latino population of about 43 percent. He's also a longtime resident, arriving in 1976 when the eight-year veteran was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base.

As principal of McDoniel Elementary School in Henderson, a dual Spanish- and English-language school, he said he understands the needs of an immigrant class of citizens as well.

He believes, for example, that children of illegal immigrants should be allowed "to live the American dream and continue to go to school," a position closer to Democrats who have been fighting to pass the DREAM Act in Congress to provide a path to U.S. citizenship in exchange for attending college.

"I'm a Republican, but I'm an independent Republican," Rodrigues said. "This is why I believe I'm really the only candidate who can defeat Titus given the large percentage of Hispanics in the district."

HERB PETERS

Peters appears to be running almost as an exercise to extend his political experience. He said that each time he ran as a Libertarian candidate for Congress in California, he improved his performance.

He once won 18 percent of the vote when he went head to head against a Democrat with no Republican in the race, he said. In Nevada, he switched to the Republican Party so he could have a larger base of voters to attract, he said, adding, "A lot of Republicans are libertarian."

He said he endorses households with one breadwinner and one homemaker in order to strengthen the family and it doesn't matter to him whether the man or women goes out to work.

As for legalizing drugs, he said the emphasis should be on individual responsibility.

"God said he created the herbs and seed and they're good," Peters said. "God never intended for those things to be made illegal."

BRIAN LANDSBERGER

Landsberger, a 20-year Air Force veteran and fighter pilot who retired in 1992 from the service, called himself the "reluctant candidate." He said he got into the race when it appeared no Republican would run against Titus. He said he's tired of all the bickering in Washington while the country suffers.

"Now, Congress is more about standing at opposite ends and throwing rocks at each other," Landsberger said. "I don't look at things from a Democratic or Republican point of view."

He said his goal in Congress would be to find ways for government to be more efficient, using his experience as a "process improvement expert" and engineer while working at Caterpillar Inc.

Landsberger said he wasn't intimidated by the idea that even if he won the GOP primary, he would face Titus, a fierce campaigner, in a district that has always elected a Democrat.

"Meat on the chopping block does not fear the knife," he said, adding that it's a Korean expression he learned while serving on the Asian peninsula. "If your fate is sealed, you're not afraid."

For the Nov. 6 general election, the winner of the GOP primary, Titus the Democrat and Stan Vaughan, the Independent American Party candidate, will be on the ballot.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.