2012 Voter Guide: Clark County Commission District B

Ruth Johnson knows she's been fighting an uphill battle.

The former Clark County School District trustee is challenging a popular, albeit sometimes controversial, Clark County commissioner who has raised far more money than she.

"We knew from the very onset that he would run circles around us with the money," she said.

So part of Johnson's strategy is to cast doubt on Tom Collins' character. And she says she was encouraged to run because of Collins' character.

"If you're OK with his leadership ... then vote for him," she said. "But if you feel like that's not quite the leadership you want, you have a choice."

The frank-talking commissioner from District B has been in the news recently for two incidents at his home.

In one, Collins was charged by North Las Vegas police for illegally discharging a firearm. That charge was dismissed.

In the other, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges after a bull he owns escaped an enclosure and charged a 42-year-old woman, sending her to the hospital with minor injuries. He paid $2,274 in fines.

But those incidents are irrelevant to his work as a commissioner, says the two-time incumbent.

"What I do in my private life is nobody's business," he said.

Collins, a former state legislator who was first elected to the commission in 2004, points to a long list of accomplishments in his district that include improvements to parks, trails and other facilities; expediting permits for the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival and for businesses that burned down; and improving sidewalks, adding streetlights and other infrastructure improvements.

"I work very hard for my constituents in my district," he said. "I'm available, I go to activities, I go to events. I'm not invisible. ... I get things done."

Collins said creating jobs and attracting new ones should be the county's priority over the next year, and that the county has been good about partnering with small businesses to help them succeed.

"We are much more efficient than the municipalities that are just giving out money," he said.

Johnson touts her experience working on the School Board, which governs the nation's fifth-largest public school system. She served three terms as a board member, from 1996 to 2008. Although that board's focus is far more narrow than the county commission's, she said her experience would allow her to sit in a commissioner's seat and get to work the first day she takes office.

"I've worked with big budgets, big staff, diminishing resources," she said.

Warren Markowitz seeks to bring the perspective of a small businessman to the commission. He's a practicing lawyer in other states but owned Create, a Las Vegas burger joint that closed this year.

"I think I offer a considerably fresher perspective and the skill set to properly contribute to the county," he said.

If elected, he said he would save money by working to consolidate duplicative government functions.

He thinks things haven't improved enough under Collins' leadership.

"I think it's time for a change," Markowitz said. "I think that the county and the people hardest hit need to realize that when things don't work, you don't do the same thing."

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781.