2012 Voter Guide: Nevada Assembly District 37

Forget the presidential and U.S. Senate races. The closest race on Election Day will be the Assembly 37 clash between Assembly Majority Leader Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, and Republican lawyer and Air Force veteran Wesley Duncan.

Three-term incumbent Conklin is in line to become Assembly speaker in 2013, and political newcomer Duncan and likely Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, would love to derail his ambitions.

That could happen. Registration figures for Oct. 1 showed Republicans held a 23-registered voter lead out of 34,606 voters in the northwest Las Vegas district.

Conklin said he isn't going to lose, noting he won his first Assembly race by just 134 votes.

He said his experience as a legislative leader, knowledge in real estate and lending matters and reputation as someone who has worked to protect consumers facing foreclosure are vital for the 2013 session.

He said now is the time to change how the state funds public schools and look at creating a fairer tax system.

"We can no longer kick the can down the road," Conklin said. "People need to sit down and work together. Our ideologies are different, but we share the same reality. We want a better Nevada. I hope the partisanship subsides."

Conklin chaired an interim committee that heard an educational firm's recommendations that the Legislature needs to change how it funds schools to a formula that considers the number of students living in poverty and learning the English language. The current funding formula was developed in 1967.

He said there is no doubt education funding is short of the need, although he will not commit now to support tax increases.

Even more important, according to Conklin, is putting Nevadans back to work. He said the Assembly Democratic Caucus has a five-point plan, including incentives for businesses that hire workers.

"If we are going to be successful and diversify the economy, we have to make the investment to train people for the jobs of the future," he said.

Duncan, on the other hand, said the overall tax burden in Nevada is high. He said adding a new business tax or other taxes would create a disincentive for businesses to move to Nevada.

He favors school choice, more charter schools, vouchers, the end of social promotion, and setting up a fund where businesses can lower their modified business tax bills by supporting student scholarships.

"We need to get students out of failing schools," Duncan said. "Businesses won't come unless we get serious about education reform. I want to chip away at things that prevent business from coming to Nevada."

Duncan also wants to change construction defect laws to end the pre-litigation fees that lawyers now secure. And he wants to pass an Arizona-type law that would release for sale the 30,000 to 50,000 homes in foreclosure in Nevada that are now held by lenders. For various reasons, he said, residents still live there and are "not paying mortgages or rent."

"That is unfair to the folks still meeting their obligations," he said.

Conklin opposes that plan, figuring it would cause home prices to plummet.

Duncan counts on upsetting Conklin because District 37 was redrawn by the court and 70 percent of its voters were not in Conklin's old district.

"Voters don't know who he is," Duncan said.

Conklin, however, contends about half the district is new.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.