2012 Voter Guide: Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Department 8

They may be fighting for the same spot on the judicial bench, but incumbent Ann E. Zimmerman and challenger Amy Chelini share one goal for Las Vegas Justice Court Department 8: ensuring fairness to all parties who step into the courtroom.

Justice of the Peace Zimmerman is seeking her third six-year term, while Chelini, a local defense attorney who once worked as a prosecutor in the Clark County district attorney's office, is going for her first judicial post.

Both stress the cornerstone of interpreting law - a balanced judicial scale - in their campaign for the job.

"To be a good judge you have to be fair to both sides. You have to be willing to listen," said Zimmerman, who earned her law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1989. "I know when I'm campaigning, there are people who want you to say you will do this or do that or be something you aren't. But my purpose is to be fair. You can't compromise your position in any way as a judge."

Zimmerman received a 68 percent retention rating in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's 2011 Judicial Performance Evaluation.

Chelini also cited "fairness and integrity" as being something she would bring to the bench, if elected. She said that although she comes from a family filled with strong law enforcement ties - a father, two brothers and two nephews - she would not have a pro-police bent.

"That wouldn't be a concern of mine. Remember, I'm a defense attorney right now," said Chelini, who graduated in 1999 from Santa Clara University Law School in California . "I think everybody who walks into a courtroom wants a judge up there who will be fair and treat people with integrity. They want to know they will receive a fair shake."

Chelini said a judgeship is something she has always aspired to, and she is receiving "a tremendous amount of support from seniors, police and unions" while out on the campaign trail.

"It's encouraging and something I'm tremendously proud of," she said of the backing.

Zimmerman, meanwhile, said she has learned a lot from her 12 years as justice of the peace, and her proudest accomplishment has been her volunteer work with a drug court program that serves to rehabilitate, rather than incarcerate, many first-time offenders.

The program requires the offender to pay $400 toward treatment, with the rest subsidized by a grant. Keeping someone in the Clark County Detention Center, on the other hand, costs $150 per day, Zimmerman explained.

"Drug addiction is such a big problem in our community," she said. "We all have had a friend or a family member or a co-worker who has been touched by the drug issue. The thing is we can't keep arresting these people, putting them in jail and then releasing them, where many of them go back out and get involved with drugs again.

"This treatment program is proving to be successful."

Whoever is elected this term will handle civil cases for the first year.

Contact reporter Joe Hawk at jhawk@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2912.