2012 Voter Guide: Nevada Assembly District 29

Once again Assembly District 29 is a hotly contested race with registered Democratic voters outnumbering Republicans by merely 722 as of the end of September.

Democratic incumbent April Mastroluca, seeking her third term, said she does not see the race as partisan.

"I think people in this district look at the issues and the person running before they look at the letter behind the name," she said.

However, the race appears tighter than it has in previous elections. In 2008, Democrats held a 1,000-voter lead and boasted a 1,300-voter lead in 2010.

Mastroluca faces two challengers in her bid for re-election. Republican Bob Irwin and Independent American Anthony Blanque both want to unseat Mastroluca, an Eldorado High School graduate who has lived in Las Vegas since she was 6 months old.

"The people need someone who has grown a business in office to shake things up," said Irwin, who has run his own gun store for 30 years.

Blanque needs to pull a significant number of votes from either party as the district is home to only 1,383 registered Independent Americans.

"America needs a choice instead of a monopoly between Republicans and Democrats," he said. "A choice between good and not just the lesser of two evils."

Mastroluca, who headed the Assembly Committee on Health Care and Human Services in the 2011 session, said work remains to be done to "keep Nevada moving forward."

"I'm committed to continuing to work to make things better," she said. "We need to stabilize the economy and increase opportunity for jobs."

Irwin agreed that job creation is a top priority, but said he would go about the task of putting Nevadans back to work in a different way.

"(Mastroluca) is a tax-and-spend Democrat," he said. "Free enterprise works. Free market works. They're what built this country."

He added, that overregulation has put a choke hold on small businesses in the state and that solving the unemployment problem will solve all other issues.

"There is just way too much regulation," Irwin said. "There are way too many laws written for the sake of being written."

Blanque said he would not support any new taxes and that government should instead curb its spending.

"Government is wasteful," he said. "We need to be more like what the Founding Fathers wanted this country to be."

Mastroluca and Irwin agreed that new taxes are not the solution, but any proposed tax should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

"We need to build a solid tax structure before we have a discussion on any new taxes," Mastroluca said.

Mastroluca, a field representative for the National Parent Teacher Association, has favored bills supporting education, and said she will continue the work she started to improve the state's education system.

Irwin said Mastroluca's support of a margin tax initiative sought by the Nevada State Education Association, which would generate an estimated $800 million a year for public education, is the type of proposal that puts Nevada jobs in jeopardy.

"You think we have bad unemployment numbers now, wait till that kicks in," Irwin said.

Mastroluca said she will continue her commitment to be open and accountable to voters.

Irwin said he wants to rattle some cages.

"I'm going to go up there (Carson City) and yell at people," he said. "(The legislators) don't know what it takes to make jobs."

Contact Paradise/Downtown View reporter Nolan Lister at nlister@viewnews.com or 383-0492.